Dear Editor:
One of the many facets of the city’s proposed Washington Street re-design is the impact on parking: on parallel, angle, and temporary double parking. Parking on Hoboken’s main street is extremely limited. Twelve thousand parking permits have been issued in Hoboken when only eight thousand parking spaces are available. This is a result of residents’ refusal to give up their automobiles in a town that is completely walkable and has abundant mass transit.
The proposed Washington Street re-design presented at the Oct. 8 City Council meeting severely limits parking options since the new design would put a two-lane bike track on the west side of the street, separated from the traffic lanes by planters and parked cars.
If this is done, how would it be possible to safely park or briefly double park in order to run into a shop to pick up something, which is often necessary since finding a parking space is virtually impossible on Washington Street? When double parking is not abused, it comes in handy and is sometimes necessary for our busy main street. In general, when parking, the driver must be able to steer his vehicle into the parking place and exit it with no danger of being hit by the oncoming traffic. The re-design allows no wiggle room to ensure such safe vehicle maneuvering or exit when traffic is passing. What if someone who is elderly or infirmed needs to be dropped off at some business or restaurant when there is no ability to safely park, much less to briefly double park?
If the parking laws were obeyed and the city ticketed the abuses of extended double parking, people would not be so angry at the cars that sit double parked for long periods of time. Washington Street’s buses and delivery trucks already take up a lot of room when they are driving up and down the street, and the danger associated with such abuses should be addressed.
I believe that parking, including brief double parking, is just a fact of life in a small city with limited parking for its business district that depends on customers to come to their doors. Not everyone is willing to take a bus or walk and then willing to take a dolly or cart to haul home their purchases.
Narrowing parking lanes will not prevent people from stopping in the traffic lane to get out. This will interfere with the flow of the traffic behind them. People that will attempt this type of risky double parking will endanger their lives as well as encouraging fender benders. Currently when a taxi stops to pick up or drop off some passenger on the side streets, where no double parking is possible, some drivers behind that taxi are impatient and unreasonable. Everyone is in a hurry and before we attempt to completely eliminate double parking from our business district, let us consider safety issues and the reality of a town that loves its cars. Not everyone is willing to walk.
Mary Ondrejka