UPTOWN — While drivers have gotten accustomed to Argyle Street's return to two-way traffic, confusion still remains about how to park on the city's first shared street, which uses different colored pavers to show people where to park.
With the new curb-less configuration, some drivers are parking far away from the designated parking spots, essentially blocking a lane of traffic.
But the Chicago Department of Transportation is planning to help clear up the confusion.
"We've never had a shared street before so we want to make sure people appreciate it and use it," said Sue Hofer, a spokeswoman for CDOT, who was filming an instructional video on how to park on the street Tuesday.
The video was planned for months, but "we needed to wait until construction was done" to get a grasp of any problems being experienced and to create the video.
The instructional video will be done in the "next week or so," Hofer said.
In the meantime, Ald. Harry Osterman has passed out instructional signs that have been posted in storefronts to help confused visitors.
By next week, more signs will be up telling visitors where to park, she said.
"The issue was people have been so excited and wanted to use the street," but construction has taken longer than expected, said Hofer. Hofer said construction should be completely done by the middle of October.
One of the biggest issues was transitioning Argyle back to a two-way street, after it was a one-way street during construction.
One confused driver on Tuesday yelled out of her window, "I can't figure out if this is one-way or not!"
But overall, most of the cars were parked in the correct direction.
"People seem to know what they're doing," Hofer said.
However, some confusion still remains on exactly where to park, said Eric Mowery, a resident of the block who watched a confused driver nearly park in the street instead of the designated parking area earlier Tuesday.
Along with remnants of construction, bike parking obstructed some of the spaces along the street.
"Those cars are supposed to be one parking spot over," Mowery said as examined the street. "In random spots, it's iffy for people, but the rest of it it's OK. Even with fliers in every single building people are" dumbfounded.
Here are some examples of what to do and what not to do:
Don't Do This: These cars are in the path of traffic instead of the designated parking area. [DNAinfo/Josh McGhee]
Do This: These cars are parked in the designated parking area, but don't creep into the concrete gutters.
CDOT created these flyers to help visitors get accustomed to the changes on Argyle Street.
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