Parking on LaSalle Road in West Hartford Center will become ‘head-in angle parking’ as of April 10.

By Ronni Newton

The Town of West Hartford has announced a change in traffic patterns and parking in the Center, and effective April 10 will begin modifying LaSalle Road so that traffic will be able to flow southbound as well as northbound between Ellsworth Road and Farmington Avenue.

At the same time, parking will revert to “head-in angled,” which was the arrangement prior to the summer of 2020.

In June 2020, when expanded outdoor dining corrals were first installed to assist restaurants with dining capacity restraints in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, traffic on LaSalle Road was converted to one-way northbound to accommodate the narrower travel lanes. At the same time, the parking arrangement was switched to “head-out angled parking,” requiring motorists to back into a space, giving the driver a greater field of vision when pulling out. Town officials said at the time that head-out angled parking was used in 32 major cities, and studies indicated that it is safer, easier, and more accommodating for unloading.

Many West Hartford residents have consistently complained about the head-out angled parking on social media.

“Following feedback from our Center Infrastructure Master Plan consultant as well as feedback from the neighborhood, we have decided to move LaSalle back to a two-way street with traditional pull-in parking,” Town Manager Rick Ledwith, who is the town’s parking authority, told We-Ha.com on Wednesday. “We do feel that this change will help with the traffic flow through the Center, allowing for more efficient access to retail stores and restaurants while also reducing traffic on Woodrow Street and Arapahoe Road.”

Since 2020, LaSalle Road has been one-way northbound, and the stretch from Arapahoe to Farmington Avenue has had a head-out angled parking configuration. Both will be modified beginning April 10, 2023. Photo credit: Ronni Newton (we-ha.com file photo)

An announcement from the town said that the “parking orientation change will reduce parking confusion and complaints.  While the back-in angled parking was well intended, it generated a lot of complaints and will have less compliance with the two-way traffic flow.”

Public Works crews will begin work re-striping the roadway and the parking spaces on Monday, April 10 – a process that is expected to take three days.

At the same time, some of the parking on the south side Farmington Avenue, that is currently angled parking, will be converted back to parallel parking. That change is needed to accommodate a left-turn lane for westbound traffic turning left (south) onto LaSalle Road.

The traffic signal at the intersection of LaSalle Road and Farmington Avenue will be modified to add a left-turn arrow for westbound traffic, and signage will also be updated.

Officials said the change to two-way traffic will not impact expanded outdoor dining, which is expected to return this May.

The intersection of Farmington Avenue and LaSalle Road will be modified with a left-turn lane to allow traffic to head southbound on LaSalle Road. Photo credit: Ronni Newton (we-ha.com file photo)

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