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To the editor:
A recent proposal to remove the parking lanes on Cape Coral Parkway and use them as a third lane for through traffic is long overdue. On one hand we have a handful of business owners that want to retain their personal parking. On the other hand tens of thousands of commuters are attempting to make the transit using Cape Coral Parkway. Tens of thousands vs. 47 parking spaces for a few businesses.
It is a certainty that adding a third through lane will reduce congestion and move more vehicles through the parkway in a safer and more time efficient manner.
It is a supposition that losing these 47 parking spaces will have a large if any impact on customers that wish to visit the businesses along the parkway. It is a given that those customers will have to park in the back or perhaps a bit further away but it is not a guarantee that those customers will just go somewhere else.
From a safety standpoint drivers attempting to back into a parallel parking space stops traffic completely for a time during the parking maneuver. Attempting to open a door and emerge from a vehicle into the parkway also creates a slowdown. Both situations are dangerous.
The refurbishing of the Cape Coral Bridge will start soon and once completed will dump three lanes of traffic into two lanes if the parking bottleneck has not been removed. Why spend millions updating a bridge but leave an encumbered roadway intact?
The city should serve the largest number of people in the Cape by recapturing the parking spaces for a third lane of traffic. If issues with business falling off becomes more than supposition, handle that problem if and when it arises.
J. Caplin
Cape Coral