April 9, 2009, 7:40 AM. Destination: Nature's Way Market and Post Office mailbox. Parking: Directly in front of Nature's Way Market, walked to Post Office while waiting for market to open. Travel time: From center of town to my house south of downtown (2.6 miles) six minutes.
Last night I went to the Economic Development Committee meeting where a planning expert and economist presented some ideas for how to encourage economic development in South Berwick. The gist of their recommendations were that our downtown business core is a huge asset that we should build upon by supporting and encouraging downtown businesses. They also recommended that we could market our town to get more of the day tourism dollar. Someone in the audience said that parking and traffic are a deterrent to patronizing downtown businesses. I have heard this before. I am one of the lucky people who gets to live and work in South Berwick and am downtown nearly every day. I haven’t experienced lack of parking or traffic as a problem. It made me wonder what the story is on parking. So today I decided to start keeping track of the traffic and parking aspect of my downtown vists. Welcome to the Parking Chronicles. What’s your take on parking and traffic?
Later the same day:
April 9, 2009, 5:20 PM. Destination: Nature's Way Market (again!). Parking: Across the street from Nature's Way Market. Travel time: From my house south of downtown (2.6 miles) to center of town eight minutes.
Molly,
I go downtown several times a week to the P.O. or to shop and I always find a parking spot, usually right in front of the business I’m patronizing! In fact, in all the years I’ve lived in S.Berwick there’s never been a time I HAVEN’T
been able to park on the business block or at the P.O. I wonder if parallel parking is intimidating for some people? Maybe it’s time for Amy to do the parking clinic she’s been offering for years. Personally, I love parallel parking, it’s so precise and tidy.
This is my first comment, don’t know why it went in two parts!
Nora
I have to admit I prefer it when I can just drive into a parking spot, but I love it when I parallel park in one clean maneuver. I guess it helps to have a small car. I was surprised when I drove into town in the 5 PM northbound traffic. I had to wait at the 236 intersection to get into town for what seemed like a long time but found that compared to my morning trip when I ran into no traffic, I only added two minutes to the time it took from home to downtown. I guess waiting in traffic seems longer than it really is.
I occasionally cannot find a spot right in front of the business but mostly I can. there is always parking at town hall or the lot at Ocean bank. I find it harder to pull out going left off of Brattle St at certain times of day, usually aroung 8 but the traffic moves fast down 236 to get into town.