Police to limit parking during Trading Days over safety concerns

Those planning to attend the 32nd Annual Old Fashioned Trading Days in Williamsburg this week may want to think about where they are going to park ahead of time.

Williamsburg Police Chief Wayne Bird said Friday afternoon that no parking will be allowed on the shoulders of the Main Street or Cumberland Avenue bridges that go into and out of Williamsburg due to safety concerns.

Bird said city officials would try their best to prevent people from parking on the bridges and to find violators and make them move their vehicles, if possible. If vehicle owners can’t be found though, then vehicles parked along the bridge will be towed.

"If for some reason it is a traffic hazard, we will certainly have it impounded," Bird said. "We have always had a little bit of parking on the bridge coming into town. Usually it is on the left side of the bridge. We hadn’t said a whole lot about it because it really wasn’t a problem, but what we had last year was people parked on both sides of the bridge and the full length of the bridge."

Bird said this wouldn’t be permitted this year for two reasons.

The first is the weight limit on the bridge.

"That is a lot of cars sitting on that bridge," Bird noted.

Bird said he couldn’t definitely say this exceeds the weight limit but it makes it way too close for comfort in his view.

The second reason is that cars parked along both sides of the bridge resulted in a very narrow lane of traffic across the bridges last year.

Bird said the parking situation is something that has been under discussion since last year.