QUOTE(awwhalen @ Jun 29 2008, 06:39 PM)
There seems to be some great things going on in the city. I love living within walking distance from the downtown; however, I can't get too excited about driving. Think about the first impression coming from the north on Lititz Pike... a thin narrow bridge, tight right turn, traffic yielding to the left, people running across the street to catch a train or buy a car, the middle lane disappears and then reappears. From Fruitville Pike... nice wide bridge, you are moving and then stop or get cut off by traffic coming in from Lititz Pike. How many streets have cars parked on both sides or parked to the corner with no visibility? What about designated turning lanes? It is a scary maze we drive. Compared to Philly this is paradise, but we can do better. I think the new parking garages will help tenfold. Especially if we can clean up the roads, move cars into off-street parking and add an additional lane for trolleys/busses, bikes or turns. How about offering FREE shuttles on Saturday to market from the Burhle Industrial Park or other places? Anything to help out of town folk have a better time here. We have a great downtown and I want everyone to have the best experience.
All great ideas and I seem to recall that the Lititz Pike Bridge is up for replacement soon. They are going to straighten it or something. Not sure of the exact details. Now on to parking. I agree there are some real issues here. For whatever reason the city doesn't enforce most parking issues. We watch cars park in the no parking zones and stay there all day/night without being ticketed. We call county dispatch but it doesn't do much to help. The other morning a car parked across an alley blocked an ambulance from getting to someone in neeed. All because the driver thought it was more important to get their morning cup of coffee rather than read the sign or walk a half block from a legal parking space. With that said, you have to be careful when using the parking garage idea to get people off the street. It does work in the core of the city, however once you get north of lemon, west of prince, or east of duke, it is primarily residential, not business. Residential tends to not use parking garages. And right now the city has decided to try and get rid of surface lots and garage rentals in the city because they don't pay enough in taxes. Angled parking will help on a few streets, but Lancaster is an old city with close streets. Parking will always be an issue.
