KEPPEL Street will become the second Bathurst CBD street to have parking guides painted on the road, following a recommendation from the traffic committee last week.
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Bathurst Regional Council launched its first parking trial almost four years ago when white 45-degree angle lines were painted along one side of George Street between Russell and Keppel streets.
The trial received mixed reviews at first as motorists became used to parking between the lines but now Stage 2 is about to start.
Council’s traffic committee last week voted to have 45-degree lines painted along both sides of Keppel Street between George and William streets, where many CBD workers park to take advantage of the fact there are no time limits in place.
Traffic committee chairman Councillor Warren Aubin welcomed the decision but said he wanted to see it go much further.
“When we did the trial along George Street my idea was always to see how it went and then roll it out across the whole CBD,” he said.
“So when this went through the traffic committee I thought, here’s my chance to start the conversation again.
“Just walking down William Street you can see there are still drivers who don’t know what 45-degree parking really looks like.”
Cr Aubin conceded there was significant opposition to the parking guides when they were first introduced on George Street but says drivers have now become used to them.
“Most drivers now understand that the lines are there to help them,” Cr Aubin said.
“The 45-degree parking just makes it easier for everyone to get in out and having the lines there maximises the number of available spaces because everyone is parking how they should be.
“When we started a lot of people didn’t like it but I now get plenty of people asking why we can’t have them everywhere.”
Cr Aubin said extending the white line rollout would bring Bathurst into line with other major regional centres across the state.
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“If you go to Orange the lines are everywhere and if you go to Dubbo they’re everywhere so I think we’ve really fallen behind a bit on this,” he said.
“The recommendation from the traffic committee will go to a full council meeting (next week) and hopefully pretty soon after that they will start getting the paint on the road.
“It will be a night-time job to minimise the impact on road users and it’s going to be great.”
Council’s rangers are not authorised to monitor the angle parking to fine drivers who do not park within the lines.
