Parking along 28th Ave NW between 56th and 57th has always been angled parking – that is until Monday – when Seattle Department of Transportation installed “parallel parking only” signs. Signs that are ignored by some neighbors.
Marybeth Turner, spokesperson for SDOT says that they received “a complaint that cars parking at an angle on either side of that section of 28th Avenue NW were blocking pedestrian access and parking up onto the sidewalks. SDOT staff investigated and confirmed that was occurring.”
Luke, one of the neighbors, is frustrated that this change was made from the one complaint, “the unfortunate thing is none of [the] neighbors were aware of his case with the city, and weren’t able to weigh in.” Luke says the changes from angled parking to parallel parking has reduced the number of parking spots from 33 to just 15. “This is extremely insensitive to a dense housing area,” he says, “as 56th only allows parking on one side of the street, and parking is already a premium.” Turner tells us that while the field investigation determined that the angled parking intrudes on the sidewalk, crews will go back again to see whether it would be possible to allow angled parking, even if only on one side. “Doing so might also require placement of wheel stops, and we’d want to understand the potential costs and make sure we’re not introducing a potential tripping hazard in the right of way,” Turner says.