Why do we curb on the parkway and park in the curbway?

April 9, 2007 12:31 PM

In Chicago, there is a street where everyone parks on the curb. Why is this done (why isn't the street just widened), and is it a popular practice anywhere else?

The street is Wilson Ave., starting at Lincoln and heading west to at least Kedzie. When I first moved to Chicago, it was obvious that this street was too narrow, so cars on both sides parked with their side wheels on the curb.

But within the past year or two, the city resurfaced the street and rebuilt all the curbs, making them *specifically* to park on. There's a low curb and a strip of concrete that's wide enough to park the right wheels up on, then a higher curb and the typical strip of grass & trees before the sidewalk.

So the street is lined on both sides with cars tipped at an angle. What's the story? Why build a "parking curb"?

posted by limeswirltart to travel & transportation (15 comments total)

I've seen it in Lowell, Mass. On the other hand, I got a ticket for doing it once in Milwaukee.
posted by drezdn at 12:36 PM on April 9, 2007

People do it all the time in pittsburgh. Of course, a lot of people in the burgh have lived their all their life and drive like they own da road. I think it was done there bc the city couldnt afford to widen the road.
posted by selfmedicating at 12:38 PM on April 9, 2007

In parts of brooklyn, when one side of the street is made no parking for street cleaning - say, 4 hours on a monday morning - the cars that are staying will double park on the opposite side of the street, and people will put notes with their phone numbers on their dashes in case anybody needs to leave. FYI.
posted by phaedon at 12:52 PM on April 9, 2007

What's the story? Why build a "parking curb"?

It's likely that the neighborhood, district or even city opposes a wider road on the grounds that it might increase through traffic, or that a wider road might require other improvements or changes to the thoroughfare that are undesirable or costly, and a "parking curb" is a mitigation.
posted by deadfather at 12:57 PM on April 9, 2007

I would think widening a curb is non-trivial. Everything from utilities to drainage probably has to be redone. There's a lot under a typical Chicago street. I'm certain this has a lot to do with costs and keeping people happy by still being able to park on narrow two-way streets.
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:02 PM on April 9, 2007

There may be a municipal ordnance governing setbacks (how far away a building must be from a street or property line) which will not allow for street widening. There's entire neighborhoods in the Bay Area where the parking curb exists.
posted by oneirodynia at 1:32 PM on April 9, 2007

There is a church in Logan Square where (during services, I assume) tons of people park their cars completely on the sidewalk. Alternatively, the two huge churches right near Palmer & Humboldt turn the middle lane of Palmer Ave. into a huge parking lot on Sundays.

I guess what I'm saying is that parking can be very complicated.
posted by hypocritical ross at 2:34 PM on April 9, 2007

limeswirltart, I also see this on Foster just east of Clark St.
posted by awegz at 2:36 PM on April 9, 2007

I see it on Linden, Merriam, and Allen Streets in Somerville, Massachusetts. Sounds similar to what you're talking about in that the streets are narrow, and so they can hardly fit the huge SUV's and other [obnoxious] vehicles that people drive these days. I think the City recognizes this in Somerville and thus turns a blind I to the practice, even though it does violate the law.
posted by jk252b at 2:48 PM on April 9, 2007

People did this in some neighborhoods in Perth, Australia, as recently as the late 1990s, so it's not just a US phenomenon.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 3:03 PM on April 9, 2007

This reminds me of the "saving" of parking spaces with lawn chairs I used to see in Chicago sometimes. Maybe Chicagoans and strange parking habits go hand in hand?
posted by fiercecupcake at 3:34 PM on April 9, 2007

I guess what I'm saying is that parking can be very complicated.

Especially in Chicago, and any other major city designed before cars were commonplace and the population has outgrown the infrastructure.

Just consider the winter parking situation in Chicago; natives dig out a space in front of (or near) their home/apartment, then put chairs and whatnot in the spot during the day. The idea is that neighbors respect each others' efforts to clear the spot, and don't use it -- unfortunately, newcomers to the city have slaughtered this model, such that Mayor Daley has been known to go on television and urge city dwellars to respect this unwritten parking code.

Of course, you can ignore it at your peril, but you risk coming back to a valdalized car, or being assaulted, or having your car covered completely in a thick layer of ice...
posted by davejay at 3:39 PM on April 9, 2007

It happens a lot in Cambridge, MA.
posted by spaceman_spiff at 4:28 PM on April 9, 2007

There is at least one street in Palo Alto that has this sort of thing going on. I did it one day and got a ticket, I think it had specified that I parked too far over the curb.

It's fun to learn about laws this way.
posted by user92371 at 11:08 PM on April 9, 2007

Wow, cool. I drive Wilson all the way down to Kedzie (where the StarbucksMcDonaldsSubwayEtc mall is) and never saw this before! Last night I took special note and indeed, there are short stretches of Wilson where there is a main curb and a sub curb. It does look like that rather than tearing up the existing curb and widening the road, they just built a new curb on top and set it back about 3 to 4 feet. I did notice that they left the fire hydrants alone and they still exist in the space between the main curb and sub curb.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 8:34 AM on April 10, 2007