Back-In Angled Parking Trend Comes To Norwalk

September 30, 2019

reverse angled parkingBack-in or reverse angled parking has become more and more popular over the last decade, especially among safety organizations like the National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and AAA. This parking trend can be found throughout the United States from San Francisco, California, Tucson, Arizona, Missoula, Montana, Wilmington, Delaware, Syracuse, New York and now, Norwalk, Connecticut. Back-in angled parking is proven to be safer, a traffic calming measure, improves handicap parking and increases parking capacity.

Benefits of Back-In Angled Parking

There are a lot of reasons why cities choose to move away from traditional parallel and towards the modern, back-in angled parking. As vehicles are modernized and advanced technology is incorporated into design, the challenges of unorthodox parking conventions become easier, simpler and safer.

Parking Capacity: Angled parking provides more efficient use of space by creating 30%-40% more capacity versus parallel spaces.

Traffic Calming: Angled parking requires more roadway, instead of curb space, thus decreasing travel lanes and shortening the width of the road, often making traffic move more slowly

Safety: By reverse parking, you avoid backing out blindly into oncoming traffic or into the path of pedestrians. Back in angled parking also protects all of the passengers in the vehicle from the driver to the tiny, backseat passenger by protecting their exit and entrance out of the roadway. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that “267 people are killed and 15,000 injured each year by drivers not parking forward first, usually in driveways or parking lots.”

Handicap Parking: Providing on-street handicap parking for parallel spaces is challenging with limited room for buffer zones to protect drivers and/or passengers. Back-in angled parking protects everyone and allows additional space for buffer zones at the beginning or end of each parking row.

Cyclists: Back-in angled parking gives drivers an unobstructed view of motorists and cyclists resulting in increased awareness and decreased collisions due to line of sight issues.

How to Park In Reverse-Angled Spaces

If you’ve never experienced back-in angled parking, no worries, it’s simple. While the maneuvers are not much different than those required for parallel parking, many people say it’s actually easier. You just drive slightly past the space, signal, and then back into the space.  View the video below to see how it works.

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