February 23, 2022 – West Bend, WI – On Monday, February 28, 2022, the West Bend Traffic Safety Commission will take up a proposal to switch parking from the west side to the east side of Ninth Avenue between Chestnut Street and Highway 33.
The idea was submitted by West Bend District 2 alderman Mark Allen. He said “safety” was a top issue.
“It will ease some issues that have happened relative to garbage collection; the new automated garbage collection and garbage cans easily share the same space. The two blocks from Poplar to Hickory, are substantially narrower and they’re on hills and tend to be a problem on garbage days,” said Allen.
Right now, according to Allen, with cars parked on the west side of Ninth Avenue and garbage cans placed on the east side there is a narrow area to travel. Allen felt if everything, cars and garbage carts, were moved to the east side of the road that would be better.
“There is also a problem in the winter because people are parking further out from the snow which cuts down the travel lane even more. On top of that you have the issue of passengers exiting into traffic, which is never really a good situation.”
Questioned how many incidents/accidents there have been, Allen said he “didn’t know” but was aware of “some close calls.”
Three people have complained, according to Allen.
A note from West Bend Police Chief Tim Dehring went out to neighbors on Ninth Avenue this week.
David Young has lived on Ninth Avenue across from Holy Angels Church for 20 years. Parking on the west side of the road has always seemed like a no brainer.
“When I spoke with Mr. Allen last night, his concern was that most one-way streets in America have one-way street parking on the right-hand side as opposed to the left-hand side,” said Young.
This week Young also spoke to Police Chief Tim Dehring.
Young mentioned the active playground at Holy Angels School and if cars would be shifted to the east side of the street, kids wouldn’t have a clear view of the road as they would have to peek between vehicles. Now, since the cars are on the west side during unrestricted hours, children have a clear view of oncoming traffic and vice versa
“The other thing that is going to be very difficult is when traffic leaves the Holy Angels Church or school parking lots it’s going to be harder to pull out with vehicles on the east side of the road,” said Young.
There was also the issue of people getting into their vehicles. Currently with parking on the west side of the road people just cross the sidewalk and they are to their vehicle. If parking is on the east side of the road, people will have to cross the road with possible oncoming traffic in order to access their vehicle, which would be an increased safety hazard.
Neighbors on Ninth Avenue also thought switching the parking from west to east would likely reduce the amount of parking spots available because there are more homes on the one side of the street and more driveways on the other.
“Parking is already tough enough in these downtown neighborhoods, without exacerbating the situation,” Young said.
Questioned how this made him feel, Young wondered how a five-block parking situation was top of the list when there were possibly more pressing issues in the City like road maintenance, budgets, and filling a chief clerk’s position that had been vacant for three months.
“I just think there’s a better use of time,” he said.
Questioned whether safety was an issue on Ninth Avenue that could be resolved by moving parking from one side of the road to the other, Young said, “I don’t think there is a safety issue. The one question I pointedly asked the alderman was, how many accidents have been caused by this parking in a different direction? Or different sides of the roadway. Zero was the answer I got.”
BELOW is an UPDATE to the original article posted 4 a.m. February 23, 2022.
Lois Siebert lives in a little brick two-story home in the 200 block of Ninth Avenue, across from Holy Angels. She’s been there 31 years.
“I actually was very surprised this is coming up before the safety committee because why propose something if there aren’t any problems to this point,” she said. “I don’t believe there has been any safety concern or safety issue with parking the way it’s set up now, but I do see safety issues ongoing if they do change it.”
Siebert said her thoughts concerning safety focus on her grandchildren and how they cross the street to go play at the park at Holy Angels School.
“We’ve always made them stop, because we live right across the street from the school playground. We’ve always made them stop and look either way, because we do have cars that come the wrong direction. It’s a one-way road, but when they come back across, they’d have a clear view coming out of that parking lot or out of that playground to come to our home.
“If people park on that side now versus this side any child or anybody leaving that parking lot won’t have a clear view.
“I think of Sunday morning with people leaving church, we’re already in tight quarters here, because Ninth Avenue is narrow. When you’re coming north, you have to be very cautious, and cars have to creep forward a little bit right before leaving that stop sign going north. But if they move the parking to the other side, that’s going to impede the view of anybody leaving the parking lot.”
Siebert also had concerns about less room for parking and people that have to back out of their driveways or get into their driveways are going to have more vision issues as well trying to get in and out on that side.
Monday’s Traffic Safety Commission meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall. The meeting is open to the public.