DUBUEQUE
DUBUQUE’S DUAL PARKING
For years, I have always wondered about cars parking in the same direction on both sides of the street. Since the late 70’s, I noticed this oddity. In my position at Kirkwood College in Cedar Rapids, a number of employees and students from Dubuque could not understand what I was talking about. Many of course either lived on the campus of Loras or Clarke colleges that are located in the hills above downtown Dubuque. Or, they lived in the suburbs. That is my guess, because no one had the answer except perhaps that I was well meant but was seeing things that did not exist. However, I knew what I saw.
The hills above Dubuque downtown are best illustrated by the 4th street lift or tram. In a pretty tourist area, the lift is a cab like technology that allows you to get in and go about 45 degrees upward for 2 or 3 stories to the top. At the top, you can see a lot of Dubuque and the surrounding Mississippi area and over into Wisconsin. It was near these hills at the top of the tram that roads coming and going downtown are steep and even in the middle of the summer, cars were dual parked on both sides heading down the hill.
Why? I surmised that in the dead of winter, hilly roads are not only snowy but icy and a car parked “up” a downhill was likely to get stuck. However, most of the time, I have been to Dubuque in the summer time. I liked to go there during my summer birthday and also drive on to Galena a pretty tourist town in Northern Illinois. Last, my wife and I would wander over to Cassville and down to the river and sit by the Mississippi in Wisconsin. Still when we were in the hills of Dubuque there sat those cars, dual parked.
(Incidentally, Iowa from the corridor of Cedar Rapids to Iowa City and north is more like Wisconsin thatnIowa portrayed on television.)
So what? Why is this parking such big thing? First, it has been on my mind for decades and second you don’t see much of that in the United States. I don’t travel a lot but my best friend who just passed away recently traveled all over the country and the world and never saw dual parking. Once he saw a car parked backwards in London while he was sitting in a pub. The car was ticket so he thought that backward parking was not the custom.
On the other hand, dual parking may be all over the country and no one that I have known about has written anything or bothered to write anything about it via the internet.
Alas, I will close with my e-mail to a Mr. Brown the editor of the TELEGRAPH HERALD who was so helpful and his reply.
| People do it year round,and they have been doing it for as long as anyone can remember. Within the past year the police have begun to crack down on this practice and have been issuing tickets. But old habits are hard to break. Ken Brown City Editor Dubuque Telegraph Herald 563/588-5663 kbrown@wcinet.com —–Original Message—– From: Prof. Joel Snell [mailto:jsnell@kirkwood.edu] Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 12:40 AM To: News Subject: dual parking in the Loras area Message through the THonline.com and AccessDubuque.com online Contact Us form. ———————————————————— Dear Editor, On my birthday nearly every year we loved to drive to Dubuque then on to Galena and Wisconsin. Both my wife and I notice that in the Clarke/ Loras area in the hills above the downtown, cars are parked in the same direction on both sides of the street. We are there in the summer time, but is it because of the snow in the winter and the cars don’t want to get stuck? We have seen it many times. My wife lived at Clarke as a student and is puzzled. I have talked with Loras grads here in Cedar Rapids. They don’t have an answer. This may be trivial, but I have noticed it for more than 20 years or so. I have never noticed it in many other cities that I have been in, but if it is to get leverage to get out of a parking spot in the icy, snowy winter, it sure makes sense. Thank you. Prof. Joel Snell Cedar Rapids, Iowa Prof. Joel Snell Attachments: People do it year round,and they have been doing it for as long as anyone can remember. Within the past year the police have begun to crack down on this practice and have been issuing tickets. But old habits are hard to break. Ken Brown City Editor Dubuque Telegraph Herald 563/588-5663 kbrown@wcinet.com —–Original Message—– From: Prof. Joel Snell [mailto:jsnell@kirkwood.edu] Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 12:40 AM To: News Subject: dual parking in the Loras area Message through the THonline.com and AccessDubuque.com online Contact Us form. ———————————————————— Dear Editor, On my birthday nearly every year we loved to drive to Dubuque then on to Galena and Wisconsin. Both my wife and I notice that in the Clarke/ Loras area in the hills above the downtown, cars are parked in the same direction on both sides of the street. We are there in the summer time, but is it because of the snow in the winter and the cars don’t want to get stuck? We have seen it many times. My wife lived at Clarke as a student and is puzzled. I have talked with Loras grads here in Cedar Rapids. They don’t have an answer. This may be trivial, but I have noticed it for more than 20 years or so. I have never noticed it in many other cities that I have been in, but if it is to get leverage to get out of a parking spot in the icy, snowy winter, it sure makes sense. Thank you. Prof. Joel Snell Cedar Rapids, Iowa Prof. Joel Snell ———————————————————— Operating System and Browser Info: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; SpamBlockerUtility 4.8.4) | |
| RE: dual parking in the Loras area Ken Brown [kbrown@wcinet.com] You replied on 3/28/2008 3:31 PM. Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 9:21 AM To: Joel Snell Attachments: People do it year round,and they have been doing it for as long as anyone can remember. Within the past year the police have begun to crack down on this practice and have been issuing tickets. But old habits are hard to break. Ken Brown City Editor Dubuque Telegraph Herald 563/588-5663 kbrown@wcinet.com —–Original Message—– From: Prof. Joel Snell [mailto:jsnell@kirkwood.edu] Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 12:40 AM To: News Subject: dual parking in the Loras area Message through the THonline.com and AccessDubuque.com online Contact Us form. ———————————————————— Dear Editor, On my birthday nearly every year we loved to drive to Dubuque then on to Galena and Wisconsin. Both my wife and I notice that in the Clarke/ Loras area in the hills above the downtown, cars are parked in the same direction on both sides of the street. We are there in the summer time, but is it because of the snow in the winter and the cars don’t want to get stuck? We have seen it many times. My wife lived at Clarke as a student and is puzzled. I have talked with Loras grads here in Cedar Rapids. They don’t have an answer. This may be trivial, but I have noticed it for more than 20 years or so. I have never noticed it in many other cities that I have been in, but if it is to get leverage to get out of a parking spot in the icy, snowy winter, it sure makes sense. Thank you. Prof. Joel Snell Cedar Rapids, Iowa Prof. Joel Snell ———————————————————— Operating System and Browser Info: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; SpamBlockerUtility 4.8.4) | |