After a trial basis, the city of Pleasant Ridge has decided to permanently move forward with two-side parking on Sylvan Avenue.
By: Mike Koury | Woodward Talk | Published September 24, 2024
PLEASANT RIDGE — Pleasant Ridge’s City Commission approved a permanent change for two-sided parking on Sylvan Avenue.
At its Sept. 10 meeting, the commission officially decided to keep parking on Sylvan Avenue between Woodward and Indiana avenues two-sided.
According to the city, two-sided parking was requested by residents of Sylvan Avenue in December 2022. The change was made on a trial basis in September 2023, and Pleasant Ridge began evaluating traffic and speed data during that time.
From the data collected, the average traffic speed was down from 24.9 miles per hour before the change to 24.1 mph after, and the percentage of speeding vehicles was reduced from 43.2% to 34.3%.
Approximately a year has passed since the change, and City Manager James Breuckman said the city didn’t hear much from residents after the change was made.
“That’s usually a sign that things are going OK,” he said.
Commissioner Ann Perry said that Sylvan’s traffic flows well with two-sided parking and that there hasn’t been any outcry from people online about the change.
“It seems to flow really nicely and it does give a lot of the residents who have younger kids … they like the buffer with their front yard, too” she said.
Residents were surveyed on if they wished to keep two-sided parking. Nine homes were in favor and four were against, with another home unsure.
The commission voted unanimously to approve the traffic control order to make the two-sided parking permanent. However, if there was ever a time where they wished to reverse their decision, Breuckman said that change can be easily made.
“Those who were in favor of going back to one-side parking … they seem to not like the fact that this created friction in terms of a driver having to stop or sometimes a driver who had to stop would be angry or honk their horn or speed away once they had the stop,” he said. “That’s unfortunate, that’s people, and you will have that with some small percentage of drivers, but that friction is exactly what creates the slower traffic speeds and the traffic calming. … That’s all part of the package of if you want change on the street. … It’s a trade-off.”