Daggett Street in Okotoks has recently had some work completed.
This Improved Parking Project began on July 16th and included paving a parking area, installing fences, Electronic Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, and landscaping.
With this project, they installed fencing along the CPKC railway right-of-way, cleaned up town-owned property, and added parking stalls along Daggett Street.
For years, this area has been used as an informal parking spot, but the Town wishes to formalize the parking area.
They anticipated that there would be about 70 parking stalls, including accessible parking.
These new parking stalls are now going to be reverse-angle parking, as opposed to simply driving into the spot.
While this seems to have caused a bit of confusion on Facebook, the Town has moved to reverse-angle parking because it has some benefits.
Those include increased visibility for drivers while they exit the stall and enter moving traffic, improving passenger safety, ease of loading, and visibility for cyclists.
According to the Town of Okotoks, research shows that reverse angle parking causes fewer collisions compared to drive-in and parallel parking and requires less maneuvering than parallel parking.
The work is expected to be completed in early September, as long as the weather permits.
To learn more about projects around Okotoks, head over to their website.