Starting Friday, May 2, the City of Cookeville will begin a trial conversion of parking on West Broad Street, between Cedar and Walnut Avenues. This will convert the current angled parking spaces to parallel, at least temporarily.
As part of the recent resurfacing of Broad Street, the street’s angled parking lines have already been removed. The City is utilizing this as an opportunity to test a parallel parking pattern. In the coming days, crews will stripe temporary parallel parking lines, with several spaces marked for accessible (ADA-compliant) parking.
This trial run is in direct response to ongoing complaints about parked vehicles blocking travel lanes, making it difficult for drivers to pass and increasing risks for drivers and pedestrians. The revised layout is intended to address these issues. It will also create wider lanes for driving and make crosswalks easier to see and safer to use along this busy corridor.
The new layout will be evaluated over the next few months. During this trial period, the City will monitor safety and traffic flows in this area. Once the trial period ends, city officials will decide whether to keep the parallel parking or return to angled.
If adopted permanently, the City will modify nearby concrete islands and paint permanent parallel parking lines.
Parking enforcement will begin on May 2. Officers with the Cookeville Police Department will monitor compliance, initially giving warnings to improperly parked vehicles. After a few days, officers will begin issuing parking citations to those in violation of the new rules.
While this change removes eight parking spaces on West Broad, the City is adding more parking nearby. A new parking lot at the corner of North Cedar Avenue and West 3rd Street will open in May, providing approximately 65 new spaces. The City also plans to build another lot between Church Avenue and Walnut Avenue to meet the downtown’s growing need for public parking.
For more information, please contact the City of Cookeville Offices of the City Manager at 931-520-5241.