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proverbialwisdom

(4,959 posts)
Thu Jan 28, 2016, 12:11 AM Jan 2016

DC Issues $1 Million Worth of Parking Tickets After Blizzard

Source: NBC Washington

PHOTO
Many cars continue to be buried and sidewalks blocked by nearly two feet of snowfall in Columbia Heights, Jan. 26, 2016.
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)


D.C.'s snow emergency will remain in effect through Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., and the city wants drivers to know it's serious about enforcing the parking bans.

Since the blizzard began last Friday, the District has issued $1,078,000 worth of parking tickets and $65,600 in fines so far. It has towed 656 cars.

And until the snow emergency expires, the District will continue to ticket and tow vehicles parked or abandoned on any snow emergency route (PDF), or considered to be road hazards. Crews are trying to plow streets from curb to curb, officials said, and vehicles parked in the way of plows will have to be removed.

Cars parked in a traffic lane on any road that are deemed a hazard or a barrier to snow removal may also be towed.

Vehicles are being towed at the owners' expense. Violators face $250 tickets, $100 tow charges and a $25-per-day fee until they pick up their vehicles.


Read more: http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/DC-Issues-1-Million-Worth-of-Parking-Tickets-After-Blizzard-366711341.html

17 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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scottie55

(1,400 posts)
4. Learn The Snow Rules
Thu Jan 28, 2016, 01:50 AM
Jan 2016

If everyone is a dumbass, no one can get around in the snow.

And if you can't drive in the snow, find a friend that can.

Shovel it out. I know you can do it. For some it would be a month's worth of exercise.

Move your car so they can plow the roads.

No excuses.

(ex-fireman)

 

Aerows

(39,961 posts)
7. It's like people griping that their car was towed
Thu Jan 28, 2016, 02:59 AM
Jan 2016

in the French Quarter when the street sweepers are coming through. It is posted IN BIG LETTERS and everybody and their brother knows that they are coming.

 

Aerows

(39,961 posts)
9. BIG HONKING LETTERS
Thu Jan 28, 2016, 03:03 AM
Jan 2016

and it is ignored, and suddenly it is somebody else who is to blame because they failed to read the HUMONGOUS SIGNS placed everywhere.

femmedem

(8,188 posts)
11. Having worked in municipal government, I know how frustrating it is for people who move their cars
Thu Jan 28, 2016, 08:14 AM
Jan 2016

in accordance with the parking ban, only to see their street still unplowed because other people left their cars on the street.

I doubt DC is issuing these tickets as a revenue generator. Where I live, the tickets are a last resort, but necessary in order to clear the streets of snow. Even if they are issued after the fact, and the plows don't come back out, it gets people to follow the winter parking restrictions for the rest of the winter storms.

 

Taitertots

(7,745 posts)
12. What are they going to do if they don't have a drive way? Levitate them?
Thu Jan 28, 2016, 08:20 AM
Jan 2016

I'm sure the beneficiaries of this million dollar windfall don't care.

femmedem

(8,188 posts)
15. I don't know what DC does, but where I live, when we issue storm-related parking restrictions
Thu Jan 28, 2016, 06:17 PM
Jan 2016

we also make the municipal parking garages free to city residents until well after the restrictions are lifted.

 

happyslug

(14,779 posts)
17. The ban is on SNOW EMERGENCY ROUTES ONLY
Thu Jan 28, 2016, 09:10 PM
Jan 2016

In fact in the article 259 cars were towed to a nearby SIDE STREET, so the owner has full access to them. All people had to do was move the car to a side street. Now that may mean cleaning out a spot for your car on that side street, away from your home, but something had to be done to get the main roads open.

Now I know it is sometimes difficult to find a parking space when parking is ban on main roads, but people do do it. That is all the city is requesting, park the car NOT on a Snow Emergency route.

IronLionZion

(45,261 posts)
13. Where are people going to take their car?
Thu Jan 28, 2016, 08:23 AM
Jan 2016

garages and private driveways are expensive in the city. It's people who can't afford those options who have to scrounge for street parking.

DC is a bit hostile to cars and aggressively promotes transit. This sounds very liberal on the surface, but many jobs are not accessible by transit and the vast majority of jobs are outside in the burbs and can only be reached by driving. I've been here 6 years before I could get a job that was accessible by bus and train and walking. It's a privilege for the few who often bragged to me about their short commutes.

Igel

(35,197 posts)
16. Been there, done that.
Thu Jan 28, 2016, 08:49 PM
Jan 2016

Given that the number of people driving to work is down, and many of those workers park on the street, the difficulty is not so much moving the car to a non-snow-emergency zone as it is (1) digging it out and (2) moving it to a convenient parking spot that (3) is also clear of snow.

Most of these signs are completely ignored. Once lived in a neighborhood where there was alternate side of street parking on some days because of street sweepers that came through. Inevitably, somebody's car would be ticketed and/or towed and they'd complain that they didn't know about the parking rules or said it was inconvenient to walk a few blocks. Inevitably, it was the same people month after month.

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