09-13-1999 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Orono/ County Road 19 No Parking Restrictions in the Narrows Bridge Vicinity We the residents in the Narrows Bridge vicinity of County Road 19 strongly urge the Orono City Council to maintain the No-Parking signage and restrictions currently in place. It is a vital issue of safety. When parking was allowed, we witnessed and experi enced a number of near miss accidents between cars as well as cars and bicyclists. The major points that support the No-Parking restrictions are as follows: 1. The widened shoulders on both sides of the Narrows Bridge were intended as deceler ation and turn lanes so residents could safely pull over and slow down to turn into drive ways and service roads. A former resident (General Rawlings) worked with the county to have the turn lanes added to the road plan. See attached pictures of turn lanes on the Tonka Bay side of Narrows Bridge. The width and space allocated on both sides of the bridge is equal. The new construction on Highway 15 in Orono also clearly provides turn lanes and No-Parking restrictions in a situation very similar to ours. 2. Turn lanes are critical because there is a very short distance on both sides of the Narrows Bridge from driveways and service roads to the bridge. Cars coming in both directions can’t see over the bridge. Also the speed limit increases from 35 on the Tonka Bay side to 40 on the Orono side, therefore, cars coming over the bridge into Orono are accelerating as they come up and over the bridge. 3. County Road 19 is also designated as a Bike Trail, meaning that adequate space needs to be provided for bikes to safely travel on the shoulder. The bike trail is heavily used with frequent large groups of cyclists and bike racers (who often travel at a relatively good rate of speed). 4. Cars parked on the shoulder of County Road 19 create a subs'iantial risk for car acci dents and car/bicycle accidents. When cars are parked in the tun: lanes (see attached photos), residents turning into driveways must brake hard from 40 miles per hour to turn into driveways. This creates substantial potential to get rear ended from cars traveling behind. Cars also frequently pull out into the other lane of traffic to get around cars turning into driveways. There is only roughly 30 yards of visibility to the top of the bridge creating a substantial risk of head on collision from cars coming the other way, particularly since they’re accelerating because of the 40 mile per hour speed limit on the Orono side of the bridge. 5. With cars parked on the shoulder there is not adequate space for bikes to travel with out riding in the traffic lanes. Also, with cars parked on the shoulder it is difficult, if not