Princeton to convert parking on South Main to parallel in upcoming pilot program

Beginning in mid-July, the city of Princeton will institute a 30-day feasibility study converting parking on South Main Street to parallel stalls, eliminating angle parking at the south end.

During Monday’s City Council meeting, council members agreed with going forward for a 30-day trial of converting diagonal parking to parallel parking from the courthouse square to Columbus Street. The rest of Main, from Columbus to Peru, will remain diagonal.

The trial also will include the parking area in front of the courthouse on the west side of Main Street.

The trial period will run from mid-July to mid-August. If it is successful, the entire length of Main Street, from the courthouse to Peru Street will be converted to parallel next year when Main Street is repaved.

A handful of residents attended the meeting to show concern for the proposed project, however, the council agreed to the feasibility study in part because it will be done in advance of next year’s Main Street repaving, which would allow the city to get a plan firmly in place before redoing the street.

“Some people believe parallel parking will affect businesses,“ said Mayor Joel Quiram in a Facebook post after Monday’s meeting. “That is not the case on the north end and there is no reason to think it will do so on the south end. Our sales tax numbers support that both ends of town are thriving and have been doing so over the last few years. I have also spoken with south end business owners who fine with the trial. There is no reason to think that parallel parking will hurt businesses, and the success of our north end business district proves it.”

“There are some people who believe that parallel parking will be dangerous as there will be doors opening into traffic and it increases the possibility that someone will be struck as a pedestrian,” Quiram continued. “We have had no issues with either concern on the north end. On the north end, the distance from curb to curb is 54 feet. On the south end it is 58 feet curb to curb, which is an additional 4 feet for safety. By this measure it’ll be safer on the south end than it is on the north end.”

Quiram quoted Illinois Department of Transportation’s traffic count for South Main from the courthouse to Peru Street, saying it documents an average daily count of 5,450 vehicles.

“Over the past 12 months, there have been three accidents in that stretch. On the north end, from Marquette to Elm, the daily traffic count is 10,400. Over the past 12 months there have been seven accidents in that stretch. The traffic on the north end is twice that of South Main, as are the accidents — there is no difference of one end of town over the other where accidents are concerned. None of the accidents resulted in injuries.”

Quiram said to account for larger and longer vehicles, as well as to help those who don’t like to parallel park, the city will extend the length of the parallel spaces, which he said will not only accommodate longer vehicles but will also allow easier parking for those who have concerns with their ability to parallel park.

“This will result in fewer parking spaces on Main Street, but there will still plenty of parking for everyone,” Quiram said.

Quiram pointed out the parking lot behind Spoons is newly renovated with more than 100 spaces, the lot behind Downtown Pub is newly renovated and the city also owns the parking lot behind the Clark House as well as the lot across Pleasant Street which will be available for public parking.