Fading lines painted by hopeful volunteers are all that remain of the city’s first foray into reverse angle parking.

The scheme backers saw as progressive and objectively safer and detractors saw as confusing and, well, backward, survived about a year on a three block stretch of North Main Avenue.

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The experiment ended quietly a little more than a month ago, when the city painted parallel parking lines over the angled ones between McClellan and Third streets.

The closure of the Bakery’s shared office space this spring and a survey of remaining business owners were behind the decision, said Traffic Engineer Heath Hoftiezer.

“After the Bakery was gone, most of the business owners wanted it to go back to the way it was,” Hoftiezer said.

That suggests that business owners changed their minds.

Exposure Gallery owner Zach DeBoer surveyed businesses on North Main, got the support of 80 percent and presented the signatures to the city to convince them to try the idea.

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DeBoer and a group of volunteers painted the lines themselves. The city added a bike lane at the same time.

“They decided to keep the bike lane, so small victory,” said DeBoer, who called the change “disappointing.”

The goal was to slow down traffic on the hill, seen by many as notorious for speeding, but also to introduce the idea of reverse angle parking.

Similar goals were cited in the Main Avenue Road Diet, which was initiated by city officials.

DeBoer doesn’t think the change is the end of the discussion on parking along North Main.

With the announcement of Lloyd Companies’ $43 million development a block away on Phillips Avenue, parallel parking might not be enough.

“There’s going to be a need for more parking down there,” DeBoer said.