Wheelchair Accessible Parking A Reality In Downtown Winston-Salem

The Ordinance Designating On-Street Handicap Parking Spaces in the City's Downtown Area was passed unanimously by the Winston-Salem City Council this week. It creates four, new accessible parking spaces. But it was six months in the making.

Last year, senior citizen Nancy Dennis fell and suffered a concussion while attempting to step up onto a curb downtown. She later went to the City Council to make her case for more accessible parking, including curb ramps.

Dennis was a customer of local business owner Cary Clifford. She was attempting to enter Clifford's establishment, Camino Bakery, when the accident occurred. After Dennis spoke before the City Council, Clifford launched an online petition for accessible parking, eventually garnering 365 signatures.

“Personally, my son was handicapped, so that's — obviously, I come from a very deep, heart place with this issue,” says Clifford. “But also, we have a ton of handicapped customers who really have trouble with this all the time. So, it had kind of been in the back of my mind for a long time.”

Clifford says she's pleased with the city's response.

“I'm super-excited. You know, I think the city wanted to do the right thing,” she says. “They were just making sure they were going about it the right way. That's why it took so long. I'm just really glad that when a few concerned citizens got together to voice their wishes, the city listened.”

But Clifford adds that as a local business owner, she still worries about parking availability in general. She says the city's downtown revitalization has made it increasingly difficult to find parking. “And so, I think the city needs to move toward 24/7 enforcement of parking spaces generally,” she says.

Regarding wheelchair accessible parking, Clifford says she's mostly concerned about enforcement.

“Those spaces actually need to be paid spaces instead of free. That will benefit handicapped people more, ironically, because what happens is, if they're free, non-handicapped people are more likely to abuse those spaces, and go into them. From our way of thinking, handicapped people would rather pay a buck, or whatever, for a space but know that it's going to be there, rather than having them always taken up by abusers.”

The Department of Transportation has recommended the installation of four on-street accessible parking spaces on Cherry Street at Fourth Street. They will be located adjacent to existing curb ramps where feasible. If existing curb ramps are not available, the DOT recommends that new ones be installed.