Market Street Parking Disconnects

As a resident of Reston Town Center, I am concerned about confusing and illogical parking spaces on the south side of Market Street.

[Circa June 2010, the yellow-curb problem discussed in this paragraph was corrected. The inappropriate yellow curb was painted-over with concrete-colored light-gray paint. I am glad to see this improvement.] The curb in the Hyatt hotel block, and continuing through the movie theater block, is [was] painted yellow for parking spaces where the signs permit one-hour parking. The next block west (across from Morton’s and Starbucks) also has a one-hour parking limitation, but no yellow curbs for those parking spaces. I don’t understand why the Hyatt block and the movie theater block have the yellow curbs. Those yellow curbs seem inconsistent with the unpainted curbs in the next block, and with the usual “no parking” meaning of yellow curbs.

Two blocks farther west, the parking spaces in front of Market Street at Town Center Condominium (12001 Market Street) are improperly located relative to the fire hydrant located about 100 feet west of St. Francis Street. The locations of the concrete strips marking the front and back of each brick parking space are inconsistent with the location of that fire hydrant and the 30-foot yellow-curb “no parking” zone associated with that fire hydrant. For the two nominal 22-foot parking spaces closest to that hydrant, one has only about 10 feet of curb not painted yellow, and the other has only about 4 feet of curb not painted yellow!

Such incongruities suggest Reston isn’t the planned community it has been reputed to be. I wonder if something can and should be done to correct these disconnects.