Flagler Ave. loading zones: Are they helping with parking, traffic in NSB’s main district?

Flagler Avenue, New Smyrna Beach’s main business district and most popular beachside area, has its fair share of challenges, including big crowds, traffic and lack of parking.

But another challenge is how effective the avenue’s loading/unloading zones, installed in 2021, have been over the past few years and how they have affected parking and traffic in the area.

Jason Reve, a captain with the city’s police department, updated the City Commission on the subject during a Tuesday night's meeting.

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Reve’s presentation highlighted the challenges the police department faced when the zones were installed initially, what changes have been made and how businesses have responded.

Flagler Avenue loading/unloading zones: Initial challenges

Before the city installed loading/unloading zones in 2021, “delivery trucks would typically stop in the lane of travel in front of the business they were delivering to and load/unload their items,” according to police spokeswoman Ava Hanner.

“With Flagler Avenue being a two-lane road, this would significantly impede travel and cause congestion,” Hanner wrote in an email to The News-Journal. “The vehicles parallel-parked along Flagler Avenue were also blocked in by the delivery trucks from time to time while the trucks were being loaded/unloaded.”

The idea to install loading and unloading zones came from the 2020 Flagler Avenue Parking Strategies study, where staff proposed installing between four and eight spots.

The city then implemented seven loading/unloading zones — five along Flagler Avenue itself and two off adjacent streets (Cooper and Buenos Aires streets). Initially, the police department dealt with a number of issues, according to Reve:

• Spaces were “too small, or located between bumpouts, creating maneuvering issues for larger trucks and road hazards with trucks protruding into traffic."

• Trucks “needed room for ramps to be extended.”

• Vehicles “did not observe signs and blocked zones.”

Reve said some of the zones were then relocated and expanded from 60 to 80 feet long and “repainted to help non-delivery drivers identify loading zones.”

The police department wrote 1,176 citations related to loading/unloading zone violations in 2021, followed by 1,155 in 2022 and 544 in 2023.

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“There are currently no repeat offender companies or drivers,” according to Reve’s presentation. “Most citations are issued to new drivers who are unfamiliar with the area.”

Police shares feedback from Flagler Avenue businesses

According to Reve, the department spoke to about 50% of the businesses on Flagler Avenue regarding the loading/unloading zones.

He said retail establishments “didn’t seem to have an issue with the loading zones.”

“They actually seemed to like it, because their theory on it was that non-locals didn’t know they could park there after 10 a.m., so it kind of opened up a little bit more parking for them,” Reve said.

Since 2021, trucks have between 4 and 10 a.m. to park on and use the five loading/unloading zones along Flagler Avenue. After 10 a.m., non-delivery drivers are allowed to park on these zones. The two zones adjacent to Flagler Avenue are “full

time, 24/7 loading zones,” Reve said.

Restaurants, on the other hand, have expressed concern about the loading/unloading times, which they call “insufficient.”

“(Restaurants) can’t really control delivery times,” Reve explained. “So they felt that it should be a little longer or maybe during business time.”

Prior to implementing loading/unloading zones, "there were no specific rules or enforcement times regarding the delivery trucks," Hanner wrote.

Commissioners weigh in on loading/unloading zone issues

Commissioner Jason McGuirk said he has heard complaints about residents who have received citations for parking on one of the 24/7 loading zones (Cooper and Buenos Aires streets) during nighttime hours on Fridays and on the weekend.

McGuirk argued that no businesses are getting deliveries at those times and asked that the department look into allowing parking for those areas during non-delivery hours.

Commissioner Lisa Martin then suggested that parking be allowed for those two areas after 5 p.m.

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She also mentioned that it is “difficult to differentiate the brackets for parking from the hatches for loading zone.”

Reve and Martin then agreed that painting the outline marking of parking spaces or the loading zones would help drivers distinguish them more easily.

"As we continue to modify and adjust the loading/unloading zones, we hope that they will help to ease traffic and congestion along Flagler Avenue and make travel easier and safer for visitors and residents," Hanner wrote.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Flagler Ave. parking: Are loading zones effective?