Putting Bridgeport parking to the test
The oncoming slew of fishing traffic this weekend during the Mono County fishing opener could put Bridgeport’s new Main Street to the test, said Caltrans District Director for Planning Brad Mettam at Thursday’s Collaborative Planning Team (CPT) meeting. The change to Bridgeport’s Main Street, which narrowed 4 lanes to 2, adding a center turn lane, bike lanes, and a mix of back-in angle and parallel parking, was conceived and executed last fall.
The back-in angle parking in particular has been a source of confusion for travelers unfamiliar with the intent behind the design. Mono County Analyst Wendy Sugimura, who stepped up as project staff and implemented the work program for the new striping scheme, explained the reasoning behind the new parking after Mammoth Town Council member John Eastman jokingly referred to it as a “brain fart.” Sugimura clarified that the narrowing of Main Street from 4 to 2 lanes deters passing, increasing safety for pedestrians as well as vehicles reentering traffic. Slowing down traffic may also encourage visitors to stop and explore Bridgeport, she said.
However, the elimination of 2 lanes opened a considerable amount of space on the street, and attendees of the Main Street Revitalization Design Fair concluded that one of the better and more cost effective ways to fill that space would be to try back-in angle parking. This approach to parking is “progressive,” Sugimura said, and “somewhere like Bridgeport is the last place you’d expect to see a progressive parking design.”
Which is why, given that the new parking is still untested by large crowds, Mettam assured CPT members that “our traffic ops people intend to closely monitor parking this weekend.” Sugimura also noted that Bridgeport businesses have been provided with notebooks for travelers to comment on their experience with the revitalized Main Street.
When asked about parking for trailers and campers during the fishing opener and the long summer to come, Sugimura pointed out that parallel parking still exists on either side of the two-block downtown area. “Regardless of how the back-in parking works, this project has had a huge benefit,” Sugimura said, noting the degree of coordination, collaboration, and empowerment that went into the process of shaping Main Street. “There is now momentum being generated for improving the infrastructure and aesthetics of the town,” she said.
Said Mettam, “What happens in Bridgeport might set the tone for other communities. So we all need to be sure this works.”
