It’s not a parking space. It’s not a right turn lane, either.

Mocksville town officials are dealing with old driving habits on Depot Street at Salisbury Street. Drivers at the intersection – one turning left the other right – were often side-by-side with little or no sight distance in either direction.

Last week, town officials put up cones and a barricade in front of what looks like a parking space – marked off when the town made other parallel parking spaces on that section of Depot Street.

According to the town’s public works director, Mike West, it is not an official parking space because it is marked in a block. Parking spaces have marks on each end, with unmarked openings for vehicles to enter.

Town Manager Christine Bralley said the changes were designed with the help of Stimmel Associates, a consultant that provided suggestions for downtown, including more parking spaces, and the N.C. Department of Transportation, whose officials agreed that left and right turns side-by-side at the same intersection were dangerous.

West and Bralley agreed that re-marking the street will be the best solution.

They said they would look into other parallel parking spaces – ones on Depot at Clement Street after being told drivers had to creep into the street to see if there was oncoming traffic if vehicles were parked in the newly-marked spaces.

They also seemed surprised that one of the marked spaces clearly extends beyond the curb and into the travel lane of the one-way street that goes from Depot to Gaither Street.

Bralley asked that motorists be reminded that North Main Street is a two-lane road. Drivers should not pass on the right if another motorist is stopped waiting to make a left turn.