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Show DMnttqpiriiaiH Now's the time to look at future of Main Street Nature provides us with various and sundry constants like gravity, Newton's Second Law and parking problems on Main Street. This past weekend Park City's own special brand of traffic traf-fic congestion and lack of parking reached phenomenal proportions as valley people came up for air in droves. And although last weekend may have been uncharacteristic uncharac-teristic of traffic flow here, it illustrated very well how ill equipped this town is to handle large volumes of traffic. There were complaints that it took as long as 15 minutes to get across Park Avenue on Sunday. But that could be alleviated by traffic lights and belt routes. No one knows, of course, when or where Park City will get a traffic light. Rumor has it, however, that the belt route may be ready in the coming year. And if not then, maybe the year after. But whatever the ailments and remedies are on the lower end of town, it seems that nothing, not even a gigantic parking structure in Swede Alley, could fix traffic flow and parking, to say nothing of deliveries, on Main Street. Just about every five years, someone proposes to make Main Street a one-way street or a pedestrian mall or something else that might relieve the automobile congestion and parking problems that we've almost grown accustomed to. But every time someone suggests restricting auto traffic on Main Street the merchants become disturbed, to say the least. They argue that without the free flow of traffic on Main Street they would go out of business. And so every five years nothing is done about the parking, driving and delivery trucks on Main Street. This summer, however, the Main Street merchants theory on traffic flow, as it relates to business, will be tested when the street gets torn up for the summer. To say that things are going to be a mess on Main Street this spring and summer would be to understate the fact. But how much better are things now? Although there is a two-hour parking limit on Main Street, some of Park City's most prominent citizens think nothing of parking all day long. Delivery trucks clog the street at all hours and side street access to Main has become more limited. It doesn't seem likely that a new parking structure in Swede Alley and the giant mall that will accompany it will soothe things. It doesn't seem likely that the Main Street merchants policy of putting reminder tickets under windshield wind-shield wipers will make Main Street an easier place to drive and park your car. It looks unlikely, indeed, that parking and traffic on Main Street will improve. Conversely, with the new mall and other growth, things can only get worse. But perhaps having Main Street torn up this summer might be advantageous. Since the street is going to be torn up anyway, maybe this is the perfect time for the city's planners and engineers to put their heads together and come up with an acceptable solution. In the meantime, deliveries should be restricted on Main Street after 10 a.m. The city should ticket all parking violators who find it necessary to exceed the two-hour limit on Main Street. And signs should be installed to show visiting drivers how to get back down once they are at the top of Main Street. -CKS |