The city of Clemson has recently partnered with Walker Consultants to produce a study examining Clemson residents’ opinions on downtown parking.
Rebekah Wilbanks, the city’s parking services manager, explained that the study aims to take a holistic look at Clemson’s parking program.
“Everything from current signage, away finding inventory and usage, current violations and fees and our pay to park program,” Wilbanks told The Tiger in an interview. Clemson will be compared to other municipalities within a 100-mile radius.
“It’s really just gonna be a reality check for what our goals are,” Wilbanks said in terms of the study’s purpose, adding that the goal is to create a more walkable, pedestrian-friendly downtown district while balancing the reality of vehicular traffic.
Wilbanks added that the survey aims to capture “the current perceptions associated with the user experience downtown,” and that the city is seeking out opinions from various groups, including residents of Clemson, students and outsiders visiting the area.
The survey only pertains specifically to Clemson’s downtown area and that the University’s parking and transportation will not be considered.
Wilbanks went on to explain how the city’s recently announced streetscape project will change downtown parking availability.
The project aims to “transform College Avenue into a safer, pedestrian-friendly destination for shopping, dining and year-round enjoyment,” according to the city’s Instagram.
The project will reportedly decrease the number of parking spaces on Sloan Street from 13 normal spaces and one handicapped space to 10 normal spaces and two handicap spaces. The west side of the street on College Avenue, which houses establishments such as TD’s of Clemson, Loose Change and Charleston Sports Pub, will have its on-street parking removed to make way for a sidewalk expansion to 16 feet.
Wilbanks discussed the process for publishing the survey results in a viewable format.
“As expected with any public survey, there’s going to be a lot of demands for free parking with nothing attached to those comments,” Wilbanks said, adding that Walker Consultants plans to pull out constructive feedback and compile the data into a report to be presented to city council.
The parking survey will be available online until March 22 as a 21-question survey with two open-ended questions, and can be found here.
