Wouldn't this just become resident only parking then? There will be hundreds of residents all fighting for few spots.

It should have been resident parking only to begin with. The businesses in that area are all have gated parking for their employees and guests.

Prior to the 2 hour parking signs, parking as a resident was not an issue. By adding the 2 hour limitation, residents no longer have a place to park their car in the area.

All of the apartment complexes also have gated parking for their residents.

I think the idea is to provide some amount of temporary parking to reduce the vast amount of illegal and dangerous parking which takes place on CPD.

Residents have the option for on-site parking at all 3 of the apartment complexes (soon to be 4 this summer, yay!). There's what, maybe 20 spaces on CPD? Not sure how those would meet the need of 1000+ residents.

@Micahel, yes, the communities offer parking to their residents but they have limited number of spots available. My specific complex is at capacity and is offering a waitlist. When I moved in, there were no marked parking spots or 2-hour parking signs and yet everyone that parked on the sides did so in a respectable manner. I'm having a hard time understanding where you are referencing the "vast amount of illegal and dangerous parking." I did not see any of the sorts until they marked the parking spots and put up the 2 hour parking spots.

@James Your argument could be made for ANY street that currently has resident parking in Cambridge. There is more demand for parking spots than there are available and yet they seem to make it work. That's also the point of why they have resident parking permits: to allow people who in the neighborhood to park there!

Every day I dodge around cars and trucks parked in the bike lane. Even occasionally on the sidewalk! They won't do that if there's legal, short-term parking available to them. On average, I encounter about 10 illegally parked (loading zone, handicapped spot, crosswalk, marked off zone) vehicles of which 3-4 are dangerously parked (bike lane, crosswalk). The ones double parked inside the protected bike lane, between the line of the parked cars and the curb, are my favorites. I'm sure I'd encounter more if I went outside more than 3 times per day (arrival, lunch, departure).

Arguably that's gotten slightly worse with the addition of the new bike lanes, but not because anyone has changed parking habits - rather, because they have not.

The parking situation is crazy on CPD. Yes, all the permanent people who work/live on CPD should have off-street parking. There certainly isn't enough on-street parking to make any significant difference. There are a bunch of short term users -- deliveries, pickups, landscapers, etc -- who can be accommodated in the 2 hour zones (or the loading zones).

The problem is, I suspect, that there isn't sufficient short term parking which means that people end up double parking. Since the city (in its infinite wisdom) decided to put parking in the middle of the street, double parking is now *much* more dangerous than it was before.

The reason that we keep complaining about illegal parking is that once people get the idea that they will get ticketed for over-staying the two hour limit, then it may eliminate the need for double parking.

@John what's to stop Cambridge residents or "friends" of Cambridge residents from parking there all day rather than the parking garage and avoiding the hour long wait to get out of the garage. 2 hour parking, perhaps night-time resident parking should be the real suggestion here.

Time-limited parking on Cambridge Park Drive was installed to meet the demand for short term parking for the businesses and residences on Cambridge Park Drive, and parking meters will be installed in the near future to encourage turnover on these spaces. These limited on-street spaces are unrestricted overnight and available for residential use.