Busy Towers Shopping Center hopes to solve parking lot congestion
Traffic can no longer drive through the parking lot parralell to Colonial Avenue because these planters barricade the lane. Photo by Amanda Codispoti
The parking lot at Towers Shopping Center has been congested the past few years since the center gained several new retailers, such as Jo-Ann Fabrics, Chipotle, Sweet Frog and most recently Mirko Pasta and Tuesday Morning.
If you’ve been to the shopping center on the weekends, at lunchtime or at night, you know first-hand that the parking lot can get pretty jammed. (We griped about the traffic woes last year in this blog post.)
The Rappaport Cos., which owns the center, did a study to explore ways to improve the traffic flow, particularly on the upper level where there are three entrances and exits onto Colonial Avenue.
The company decided to try turning the two center entrances and exits into one-way lanes. Traffic enters the center in one turn-in and exits in another. In addition, vehicles can no longer travel the entire length of the parking lot in the lane parallel to Colonial Avenue because a barricade of boulders and planters has been put in place near the Towers sign.
In addition, the parking lot on the lower level was restriped outside Kroger to create pedestrian crosswalks.
Sheryl Simeck, Rappaport’s vice president of marketing and communications, said that the company is testing the changes to see how it improves traffic flow.
What do you think of the changes? Do you have any suggestions for additional improvements?
November 19, 2012 - 12:00 PM
It’s been good to see how hard the management company for Towers has worked over the past few years to create a vibrant shopping center. They deserve credit for that, and for not settling for easy lease income. They seem to earn theirs through hard work.
Saw this too late 2 weeks ago and I ended up driving down the wrong way enterance ramp… Whoops! I wasn’t the only one though. Hopefully it won’t take long for people to realize the change!
Went to FM last night and people were seizing up all over the parking lot. Maybe they should have given the transition a few weeks before crunch time.
I’ve been waiting for a venue to air my aggreviation regarding vehicles making a Left Hand Turn out of the upper level parking lot onto 23rd street to get to Colonial Ave. There is a back up o traffic for those of us who are waiting to make an easy Right Hand Turn out of the lot. The vehicles turning Left have to wait until someone lets them out. The 23rd Street is always very congested because it links Brandon with Colonial. Therefore I think there should be NO LEFT TURN out of the lot. There are other ways to get out to Colonial without obstructing traffic and making it not only complicated but dangerous for everyone. Thanks.