Letters to the Editor: Is this a solution for parking in L.A.?

Letters to the Editor: Back-in-only parking: A curse or a boon for L.A.?

Cars backed in diagonally on an L.A. street

Sept. 11, 2023 10:53 AM PT

To the editor: I think back-in parking is great. Traffic will need to stop so you can back in, but it should take less than 30 seconds to do so. The person parking can see where he is going and will not have pedestrians walking or cars racing behind him. Pulling out will be safer as drivers can actually see cars and pedestrians approaching their pathway.

This makes so much sense. It should be the norm, not the exception. It also makes it safe for me to unload my walker from the trunk, something I can’t safely do if the trunk is next to the driving lane.

Suzanne Brugman, La Habra Heights

To the editor: Back-in diagonal parking is totally illogical. I can’t believe that the people who made this decision thought this would be better than normal head-in diagonal parking. Head-in diagonal parking is used widely to maximize parking spaces for local businesses. The article states the obvious of why diagonal parking is safer than parallel parking, but I’ve yet to read anywhere the advantages of back-in diagonal parking to head-in diagonal parking.

Glad the lines are painted so that it will be much easier to repaint and change it to head-in parking.

Steve Shaevel, Woodland Hills

To the editor: The article from Andrew J. Campa contains a very simple solution that was obviously stated within the text. Scott Silverstein drove through Lancaster’s 0.6-mile-long “The BLVD” district with nonreverse diagonal parking, noting: “It was beautiful and there was tons of parking.” Therefore, simply change the parking space paint to pull in and back out diagonal parking that every driver is used to negotiating. Why wasn’t that done in the first place?

Oscar W. McGraw, Topanga

To the editor: It’s really easy. When you approach your desired parking spot, you slow down to a crawl and use your turn signal to inform those behind you of your intent. The turn signal is that lever that Angelenos see as a vestigial stick on the side of the steering wheel.

If you can’t back your car into a parking spot, you shouldn’t be driving a car.

J. Marvin Campbell, Culver City