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Consultants propose intercept parking, parking pricing and seasonal car-free streets to ease summer gridlock
Summary
To ease downtown congestion driven by a seasonal swell of cars (an estimated 13,000 more vehicles in July vs. winter), consultants proposed an intercept lot by the Pell Bridge, improved parking information, pricing zones, shuttles and seasonal pedestrian-only streets paired with better event coordination and marketing.
Consultants told the planning board that congestion and circulation are among residents’ top quality-of-life concerns and proposed a suite of strategies to reduce downtown vehicle circulation. "There's a need to improve vehicle parking management and information so that people know what's available and can spend less time circulating and congesting the streets," Mindy Watts said, and she pointed to a new intercept lot near the Pell Bridge as an important first step.
The consultants suggested pairing the intercept lot with convenient transit or shuttle connections, micro-mobility options for the last leg, clearer marketing so visitors know how to use the lot, and parking pricing and zone management to discourage circling for prime downtown spaces. They also proposed piloting seasonal car-free streets on weekend nights using examples from Annapolis and Salem. Council members and residents asked for historical traffic context and for assurances that shuttle and transit connections would be reliable; consultants said the plan will include event-management and enforcement strategies to make those systems dependable.
