Depot Street traffic concerns merchants

Randy Sadler of Shelbyville Record Shop expressed his concerns to the Shelbyville City Council Tuesday about parking on East Depot Street. (T-G Photo by Brian Mosely) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Merchants from both on and off the public square told Shelbyville's city council Tuesday they would like take another look at traffic and parking patterns on East Depot Street.

The street is now 60 days into a 90-day trial period to test the street as a one-way, outbound road from the public square.

Randy Sadler of Shelbyville Record Shop told the council he had gathered signatures from customers asking that the diagonal parking layout be changed.

"Angled parking just isn't working," he said. He asked council members recently to park in the new spaces and attempt to back out.

"I am for safety, but if you park there and back out, you're just blind." Sadler also said while the change has meant more parking spaces for Depot Street, "sometimes more is not better."

Sadler said that the city could have the traffic go into the square with diagonal parking or go back to having parking and the street being two way "like it's been for 50 years," but that he didn't know the answer to the problem.

Councilman Al Stephenson said he tried the parking experiment, purposely parked next to a van "and couldn't see nothing." He had to get an employee of the record shop to move the van, and had he not done so, Stephenson said he would have been hit.

Another council member, Kay Rose, said she had heard a lot of positive things about the street being one way, and hoped there would be a solution.

Councilman Thomas Landers said he spoke to a man who was hauling a lawn mower on a trailer and a large pick-up truck parked on the street kept him from progressing any further without hitting it.

The driver had to ask everyone behind him to back up onto the square so he could get out of Depot St., and "he was not happy," Landers said.

There have also been reports of motorists losing their side mirrors by hitting parked vehicles, Landers said.

Also addressing the council was Cindy Stephenson, owner of WRL Market, who said that while her business was not on Depot Street, she said access to the businesses on the square was important.

"With the economic downturn, we need to be doing everything we can to encourage people to come in here and shop," she said. It is also not helpful that there is a sign at the Depot Street entrance to the square that says "Do Not Enter," she said.

She observed that diagonal parking had slowed down traffic on Depot Street, and that safety is important since many children attend the movie theatre. But she said she has spoken to many business owners on Depot Street who tell her they like the current parking situation, but are unable to see to pull out.

Stephenson asked that the city change the direction of traffic flow so that vehicles come onto the square from Depot. She also said many of the merchants have written letters to the council to that effect.

Allowing parking to be on the south side of Depot Street would allow people at Shelbyville Record Shop to load equipment instead of carrying it across the street, she said.

She reminded the council that businesses are trying to make Shelbyville's square a "destination point."