From Councilwoman Burkley Allen:

You may have noticed that Acklen Avenue in Hillsboro Village has been graded in preparation for repaving and new road markings. As Public Works restripes the angled parking, they will be turning the direction of the angled parking from "back-out" to "back-in". This is a much safer configuration that will provide the same amount of parking, but with much better visibility for exiting the parking space. Getting into the space will be similar to parallel parking, where the driver pulls past the space, and then backs in. Leaving the parking space, the driver will have a full view of the traffic on Acklen instead of backing blind into it. Loading items in the back of the car, or putting small children into the car will also be better shielded from traffic.

The paving will start around September 28 or 29. I expect it may take a little while to get used to the new set-up since this is the first example in Nashville. There are many cities that have implemented back-in angled parking with good data to support the improved safety. I'm excited for our part of town to be the pilot on this, and I welcome comments and feed-back once you've had a chance to try it out a few times.