OCEAN CITY – An agreement could prohibit parking along a portion of westbound Route 50.
In a meeting of the Ocean City Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee Wednesday, State Highway Administration (SHA) Assistant District Engineer Jana Potvin outlined a plan to prohibit parking on westbound Route 50 from the end of the span’s sidewalk to Inlet Isle.
Potvin said a memorandum of agreement had been submitted to the Maryland Office of Traffic and Safety (OOTS) to prevent motorists from parking their cars on the shoulder of Route 50 in front of Hooper’s Crab House.
“At the district level, we are just waiting on approval from our administrator and OOTS,” she said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.”
Officials noted the addition of the hiker-biker trail and a guardrail along the shoulder of the highway had created a dangerous situation for motorists parking in front of the crab house.
“Historically, when that wasn’t there, you’d see cars parked along the shoulder and many of them inch their passenger side wheels off the asphalt and into the grass,” Public Works Director Hal Adkins said.
Potvin told the committee that officials had recognized the issue and were working to solve the problem.
“The reason why there is a change is because the addition of the guardrail prevents people from being able to utilize the grass area to walk safely,” she said.
Committee members this week applauded the decision. Councilman Tony DeLuca said resort officials had asked SHA to remove parking in that area years ago, but their requests were denied.
“That solves a problem …,” he said. “So now we are making them park along the south side of the street and making them walk to wherever they want to go.”
Potvin said SHA had initially declined requests to remove parking in front of the crab house because there was no crash data to support that decision. She noted, however, that the addition of the guardrail changes the situation.
“The guardrail prevents people from opening their doors fully,” she said. “It also puts people at a risk for being slammed between cars and the guardrail. They are either going to walk into the street, which is potentially dangerous, or they are going to walk between their vehicles and the guardrail because they aren’t going to jump over the guardrail and walk on the slope.”
Officials said if the MOA is approved, parking between the bridge and Inlet Isle would be prohibited. It would not affect parking along the shoulder of eastbound Route 50.
“It was going to be a dangerous situation …,” Adkins said. “That cleans it up.”