LA Opens Reverse-Only Parking Spaces and Exposes Drivers Who Can’t Back Up

Not a lot of folks look at Los Angeles, much less the San Fernando Valley north of the main city, as a place that struggles with parking. Most Angelinos have a place to put their car, but when the time comes to go out and park the car for a night out, it’s a struggle. Los Angeles is trying something new: Reverse-only parking spaces in place of parallel spots. It’s going as well as you’d think.

Woodland Hills is a neighborhood of Los Angeles that exists on the western fringe of both Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. It’s a busy sub-city that lives in the shadow of the Santa Monica mountains, just north of the Pacific Coast, and is largely residential in makeup. Two major thoroughfares neatly divide Woodland Hills: Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Ventura Blvd. Where Topanga Canyon Blvd is a four-lane road that acts mostly as a delivery conduit to malls and parking lots, Ventura Blvd has businesses that are served directly by the roads and had parallel parking–until now.