Diagonal Parking on Carroll Ave. Near B.Y. Morrison Would Add Spaces

A member of the Takoma Junction Task Force said switching the parking on Carroll Avenue near B.Y. Morrison Park from parallel parking to diagonal parking would increase the number of spaces from seven to 11.

Task Force Member Barbara Muhlbacher researched parking on Carroll Avenue near the park, and produced the report “Parking Options at B.Y. Morrison Park and along Carroll Avenue.” When presenting the report to the Task Force she said, “There are seven parallel parking spaces along Carroll Avenue. They are divided up into three sections. Reconfiguring the parking makes it “possible to have back-in only diagonal parking.”

In addition, the report says, the “current layout of parking at B.Y. Morrison Park provides for difficult access, low visibility of available parking, unusable paved surface, and no direct pedestrian access to the park itself.” The report lists “suggestions for improvements of parking along Carroll Avenue.

Those suggestions are:

• Diagonal parking would increase useable pedestrian space and opportunity for landscaping, e.g. large flower boxes with benches in front of them in the “triangles” created by the diagonal parking spaces.
• Space for diagonal parking is sufficient in that area: parking spaces can be 8.5 feet wide and 15 feet long while allowing an at least 12 feet wide space for a designated handicapped space (requirements to be verified), and allowing for an 11 feet, nine inch wide road lane (the minimum requirement is 11 feet).

The report also list suggested improvements for B.Y. Morrison Park.

Those improvements are:

• Move existing parking spaces perpendicular to residential fences, thereby providing more direct access.
• The new configuration provides better visibility from the street.
• Opportunity for unusable paves surface to be converted into landscaped surface for enhanced aesthetics.
• New configuration would also allow for a pedestrian access path to B.Y. Morrison Park.

After submitting her report, Muhlbacher conducted additional research on Montgomery County and Takoma parking codes, and “found out there is no county code for on-street parking; we only have codes for off-street parking,” she said. “The city doesn’t have any regulations either,” she added.

Muhlbacher said a county official directed her to check further with the Montgomery County Department of Transportation and the Maryland State Highway Administration. However, she urged the Task Force to include the parking report ideas in the panel’s final report to the city council which is scheduled to be filed in October.