MARKED line parallel parking spaces will be trialled at three sites in Cronulla central business district to try to ease the suburb's parking congestion.
Parallel parking line marking for Cronulla CBD was first suggested in last year's Shire Futures Forum and is being pushed by Shirebiz, a group formed to represent local businesses.
ShireBiz representative, retired businessman Tony Blain, and former Cronulla MP Malcolm Kerr, commissioned traffic consultants Bitzios at their own cost to see how the idea could be implemented.
The consultants surveyed areas of higher turnover, time-limited parking and areas of long-stay commuter and resident parking.
Their survey found that the western side of Croydon Street from Burke Road to Purley Place would have five extra spaces with marked line parallel parking.
Other areas to gain more spaces with marked line parallel parking include Burke Road, Nerang Lane, Nerang Road, Kingsway, Purley Place, Ozone Street, Elouera Road, Gerrale Street, Able Place and Gosport Street.
Council staff have yet to select the three sites to be trialled.
Sutherland Shire Council has painted parallel parking spaces on short sections of Links Road near Wanda beach.
Marked line parallel parking spaces use the Australian Standard of six metres for a typical car space and 5.4 metres at end sections.
A council report said the most effective way to increase on-street parking spaces was to provide angle parking on one side of the road and parallel parking on the opposite side of the road.
But angle parking requires wider roads and only a few Cronulla roads are suitable.
The consultants said the benefits of marked line parallel parking spaces include reducing cars parking across driveways, speeding up parking manoeuvres and reducing traffic congestion caused by vehicles reverse parking into smaller places.
Line marking would also encourage motorists to park closer to the kerb, providing more road space and also benefit cyclists, the consultants' report said.
Mr Blain said he was thrilled that the council had identified the benefits of marked parking and was prepared to give it a trial.
Mr Blain said he had no preference regarding the areas used in the trial.
"The parking problem is a whole-of-Cronulla thing," he said.
"Motorists are often lazy and need to be more accurate in their parking.
"I believe we spend too much time assessing multimillion-dollar car parks when for very modest expenditure, such as a lick of paint, we can improve the number of parking spaces in a very congested area."
What do you think of the idea of introducing marked parallel car parking spaces at Cronulla?
