Hannah Schwarz

hschwarz@pressconnects.com | @HannahRSchwarz

Back-in angle parking on Court Street is no more.

Twenty back-in spots will be replaced with parallel parking spots beginning this weekend, adding an additional two spots to Court Street, Mayor Richard David announced Thursday morning. Construction crews will begin removing parking paint and adding fresh paint on Saturday. The parallel spots are expected to be in place by the end of the weekend, weather permitting.

"It's very very difficult for motorists to utilize back-in parking because there's always someone behind them," David said, calling the announcement "one of the most long awaited" ones in his tenure as mayor.

Since 2012, when the back-in system was implemented, there have been almost 1,800 tickets issued for back-in angle parking infractions, David said, standing on Court Street near a poorly parked car. Those infractions include drivers pulling in head first, taking two spots and not being correctly aligned.

"A lot of people you watch, and they just have difficulty doing it," said Ron Sall, president of the Downtown Binghamton Business Association and owner of Sall-Stearns, a men's clothing and tailoring shop on Court St.

The parking can lead people to cross double yellow lines in order to pull into spots head first, Sall said.

Conklin Avenue and Hawley Street also feature back-in angle parking spots, but those streets receive fewer traffic than Court Street, David said.

"The concept of reverse (back-in) parking is a safe design," he said. "The problem is when you utilize it in such a heavily trafficked area."

The parking spots on Conklin Avenue and Hawley Street will remain for now, but are going to be closely monitored in the future, David said.

Rethinking the back-in angle parking spots was one of the recommendations in the parking study commissioned by the city, which was released in June 2016. According to that study, back-in angle parking can help slow traffic and increase visibility for drivers when they're pulling out of a space. It's also safer for cyclists.

But residents, the study said, "expressed mixed emotions" about the parking spaces.

The development comes a month after David announced that the city would be replacing some of its parking meters with parking kiosks, another recommendation from the parking study.

NEW WAY TO PAY: First downtown parking kiosks installed

The city plans to install 50 parking kiosks by the end of 2016 or early 2017.

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