SFPD weighs in on Phillips Ave. parking proposal

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The Sioux Falls City Council is considering a new parking ordinance in downtown Sioux Falls Tuesday afternoon, and advocates include the city’s police department.

“I think it’s probably needed,” said SFPD public information officer Sam Clemens in a phone call with KELOLAND.

The proposed ordinance would state that there must be 10 feet of space from the center line of Phillips Ave. to the back of any vehicle parked along the avenue between 9th and 13th streets.

A line would be painted on the back of each parking spot, making each spot 18 feet deep. Any vehicle that overhangs the line would be in violation.

“When you have vehicles that extend out into the roadway, it just leads to causing problems or potential problems for traffic and pedestrians as well,” said Clemens.

When it comes to enforcement, Clemens says that the SFPD normally doesn’t get too involved in parking enforcement downtown, though they are capable of doing so.

“Having the idea of having the line painted on there is a really easy visual reminder for people to know if they’re over that line or not,” Clemens said. This reminder would be good both for drivers parking in the spaces, but also police who may need to enforce the ordinance. “It’s easy for everybody to know if that vehicle is in violation or not,” he said.

Clemens talked about how vehicles jutting out into the lane can impact traffic.

“I mean, if we’re talking an emergency situation — if you have somebody that’s extended out in there and cars aren’t able to get by, you know, if they’re waiting for oncoming traffic to clear so they can go around it, sometimes that oncoming traffic can be pretty lengthy,” said Clemens. “Having that bottleneck where traffic can’t get through could mean a delay in emergency services.”

This type of issue is not limited to just emergency vehicles either. It can create a bottleneck anyway when drivers must cross into the oncoming lane to get around a vehicle sticking out of its spot.

When it comes to the cause of these issues, there’s usually just one culprit.

“I think that’s really all it comes down to is the pickups that we hear about,” Clemens said. “A normal-sized pickup, I think fits fine, but when you have the extra long — the extra cab or the extra long bed, those are the ones that cause the issues.”

While some have argued that longer vehicles make things safer by forcing traffic on Phillips to slow down, Clemens provided a counter-point.

“We don’t see a whole lot of cars speeding downtown,” Clemens said. “The lights are set in a certain way, that it’s really not conducive to cars traveling at a high speed on Phillips Avenue.”

Instead, he argued that vehicles sticking out could have the opposite effect.

“If you have somebody that’s blocked and not able to get by, they may be in a hurry,” said Clemens. “So as soon as they have a shot to get around that extended parked vehicle, they may drive into oncoming traffic maybe when they shouldn’t, trying to push the issue because they’re, you know, tired of being parked.”

Overall, Clemens does not see drawbacks with this proposed ordinance.

“I mean, there’s a lot of public parking downtown, so if you have an extra long vehicle that you’re not able to fit onto Phillips Avenue — you can go around the corner and there’s tons of spots,” said Clemens. “There’s parking garages, there’s some parallel parking spots. There’s a lot of other options.”

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