07-03-2025
Back-in angle parking is cropping up all over Richmond
Back-in angle parking, a newish-to-Richmond type of street parking, is cropping up in more parts of the city.
Why it matters: Richmonders don't do well with change, especially when it involves parking.
The big picture: Back-in angle parking is generally a safer way to park because it's easier for drivers to see pedestrians or traffic when exiting a space. Plus it puts drivers closer to the sidewalk once parked, according to urban planners.
It can also create more overall spaces compared to parallel parking — but safety is the main reason Richmond recently started adding more of it, Paige Hairston, a spokesperson for the city's public works department, tells Axios.
It takes a wider street to handle back-in spaces, though, so the city is only able to add it where there's "extra width that makes a conversion possible," Hairston notes.
Zoom in: Jefferson Avenue in Church Hill is the latest street where you now back in to park.
It joins longer-established rows of back-in parking on Libbie Avenue in the Near West End, 19th Street in Shockoe Bottom and Byrd Street downtown.
More spots are in the works in South Richmond, on Forest Hill Avenue where it forks off from Semmes, as part of broader pedestrian-safety enhancements.
Yes, but: The newish-to-Richmond parking on Jefferson was rolled out with little, if any, how-to information from the city. And, unlike in other parts of town, the spaces near Slurp Ramen and across from Union Market lack signage saying it's back-in.
A recent poster to Richmond's Reddit forum thought the city had installed the spaces backwards … and the 93 comments the post racked up suggest many locals aren't sure how it all works.
On a Friday trip to Church Hill, this Axios reporter found more than half the cars were parked facing-foward, the incorrect — and far more dangerous — way to use the spaces.
That backward back-in parking could earn Richmonders a ticket.
"Front-end parking, as well as parking in crosswalks or within 20 feet of crosswalks, is illegal and will be enforced," Hairston says.
Fun fact: Back-in angle parking actually made its Richmond debut more than a decade ago on 10th Street near City Hall. Neither 10th Street nor Richmonders were fans.
"I had to struggle to get into it..." one annoyed parker told Channel 12 news.
How it works: You back in. At an angle. As you would when parallel parking, only fewer turns.
In fact, back-in angle parking is just "half the maneuver" of parallel parking — and for most people, Hairston says, easier to do.
Richmond, clearly, is not most people. So we've got some work to do.
