Dear Editor:
There is a survey being circulated by the town regarding potentially widening the existing sidewalks on Main Street so merchants can display their wares on the street, or in the case of restaurants, add tables and chairs outside.
Part of this plan is to eliminate angle parking and replace it with parallel parking. This ill conceived idea has many problems.
Our original village planners had the wisdom to create a wide main street to accommodate traffic, commerce and parking.
Compare this to the main street in Oliver, which is narrow and has parallel parking on both sides. When someone wants to park they have to stop and back into a space, hopefully in only one attempt.
Meanwhile, traffic behind stops and creates congestion. The effect here with parallel parking would be a nightmare.
We already have gridlock in the busy tourist months and don’t need to create more. Angle parking is fast and efficient.
If parallel parking was introduced we would lose 50 per cent of the spaces. People want to park close to the business they are going to visit, and if they can’t, they will go somewhere else.
Eliminating half the existing parking spaces would negatively impact these businesses. As to the issue of merchants displaying their merchandise on the sidewalk, Home Hardware has been doing this for years with no negative feedback.
There is a five-foot-wide space between the roadway and the pedestrian sidewalk which could be used by restaurants for small tables without reducing existing parking.
We should give this idea a sober second thought.
Bill Robertson,
Osoyoos, B.C.
