Parking Issues.

[mogwaikisses.livejournal.com]

Moved here six days ago, and got my first parking ticket, street sweeping first Friday of the month.

Now I am carefully combing through the parking regulations for Somerville, and see there is an "over 48" rule.

Can someone tell me if it is true that your vehicle cannot be in the same spot for over 48 hours? I don't drive my car (trying to sell it), I take the train to work and pretty much everywhere else, so my car has been sitting there in the same spot since Thursday evening, which makes it 48 hours tonight.

Is this actually true, and if so, is it enforced? Is it a tow-able offense? Thanks.

Comments

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is ticketable, and I have been ticketed because of it. It is worse in the winter when it is very obvious if the snow isn't removed from your windshield. I don't think they ever tow for stuff like that, unless you're parked somewhere illegal like a fire lane.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

It's true, but in seven years of living in Davis and moving my car about once a week I've never been ticketed for it. I think it's rare for it be enforced unless you have someone complain.

[veek.livejournal.com]

In my limited experience (I too live on a fairly quiet street), it's only true if you don't have a resident sticker.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

It's really true when there is snow. They can thus tell if you haven't moved your car since the snow. Otherwise it's when your neighbors call it in.

If you want to know more, you can follow the parking tag on your post to other posts on the same topic.

[daft.livejournal.com]

Agreed with what other said re: "Not unless there's snow". I have a pretty old car (see icon) that I pretty much only move on street sweeping days (sometimes I even like to drive it around the block to prove to the neighbors that it's not derelict). I've been sort of half-assedly threatened with the 48-hour rule by one neighbor when I had parked in front of her house for street sweeping and then not moved it back to my customary spot right afterwards.
The caveat being that I'm on a pretty quiet side street, and my "customary spot" is in front of my house, which is really the only house on our side of the street for half the block. So there's not a lot of demand for the particular spot I occupy. Although I do get cranky when someone parks in it before I move it back :P

[elbren]

For what it's worth, I know the 48-hr. rule sounds dumb, but what it helps avoid is people implicitly "claiming" a particular spot on the street, and then acting pissy when someone else parks there. Sometimes people even get tickets who drive to work but then return to the same place they were in the previous day. (I'd think such a ticket would be contestable, but you can look through old entries to see how effective this is.)

You'll see evidence of the tendency the rule is trying to inhibit in winter, when people dig their car out and leave lawn furniture in the gap, with the intention of returning and finding "their" parking space still empty. Feel free to move such lawn furniture (bonus points for artistically arranging it with another item similarly placed).

But yes, it's a hassle for folks who don't drive much. Remember to move it every other day, or make arrangements with a neighbor or friend with a driveway.

[ellf.livejournal.com]

Feel free to move such lawn furniture (bonus points for artistically arranging it with another item similarly placed).

Feel free to explain what you did at the ER - the receptionist at Somerville Hospital supposedly collects those stories.

[tober.livejournal.com]

You seem to be suggesting that physical violence towards someone who removes lawn furniture or other such placeholders from a street parking spot is acceptable, or, at least, understandable. You, sir or madam, are an ass. If I saw such detritus blocking a parking spot, I would probably move it out of the way as a service to users of the street - and I don't even own a car.

[ellf.livejournal.com]

You seem to be suggesting that physical violence towards someone who removes lawn furniture or other such placeholders from a street parking spot is acceptable, or, at least, understandable.

You both missed the point and managed to look fairly foolish in doing so.

[cnoocy]

For the benefit of us fools, could you explain your point more?

[nonnihil.livejournal.com]

I think he was aiming less at "acceptable" or "understandable" and more at "probable".

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

and I'd love to see what happens when it's someone who could actually fight who gets threatened for moving stuff like that.

[daviscubed.livejournal.com]

Only time I've ever heard of something like that being enforced was when the car in question had a VISITOR'S permit as opposed to a sticker.
It could also happen in the event that you don't clean off your car for a duration after a snowstorm. Basically, as long as your car doesn't look neglected, you should be all set.

[roosto.livejournal.com]

clearly violence, or vandalism of someone's car are not acceptable responses to moving the lawn furniture and taking the spot.

However, common courtesy & practice dictates that when circumstances allow you should park in a space that has not been 'claimed' in such a fashion even if this means digging out an unshoveled spot.

[jcgentry.livejournal.com]

I've also gotten an "over 48 hour" ticket when I've gotten a previous ticket and neglected to remove the ticket within 48 hours.

I think the general rule of thumb is that they won't ticket for this unless it's totally obvious that you've been there for more than 48 hours.

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

As what everybody else has said--it's a real rule, it's enforceable, it's extraordinarily unlikely you'd be towed unless your car was either blocking a fire lane or a driveway or something, or if you left your it for weeks with the tickets piling up on the windshield.

It's enforced irregularly through most of the year. In winter, after a snow emergency is declared, the city enforces the rule strictly (I don't think that's BECAUSE it's more obvious if you haven't moved your car in two or three days, although it is a lot more obvious then--I think it's because A) there's no street cleaning in winter, so no incentive to move your car even as often as every two weeks to avoid a ticket for that, and simultaneously B) the city really does not you to leave your snow-heaped car unshoveled and wedged in snow and ice to freeze all winter long; it creates an obstacle and a hazard for plows, other vehicles, and your neighbors).

Exceptions to the irregular enforcement in non-winter seasons include:

1) your neighbors getting ticked off and calling 311 (this probably didn't happen to to you, if you were actually only parked there for 48 hours before you got the ticket--the city doesn't take the complainer's word at face value and issue a ticket right away. They just start watching the car, and if it isn't moved for 48 hours after the complaint, THEN they issue the ticket), and

2) if you park on one of the busy, crowded streets, like Willow, parking regulations are apparently much more strictly enforced. It just kinda bites for the people who live there and can't count on the same degree of slack as everyone else. On small residential backroads, you can take your chances--despite regularly leaving my car for over a week in the same spot, back when I still had one, the only ticket I ever got was when I forgot to move the car for street cleaning--but if you live on a throughway, regularly moving your car is a hassle you're going to have to put up with until you can sell it. Sorry.

BTW, I recommend going to the Somerville City website and requesting a Welcome kit. They will send you one for free, and it has nifty things like a city map, traffic and parking regulations, and trash and recycling information--all that good stuff you need when you move into a new municipality.

Welcome to Somerville!

[maelithil.livejournal.com]

Actually, common courtesy dictates that you not claim a spot for yourself on a residential street. But hey.

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

By the way, just in case you had somehow missed this, every year, from April somethingth to I think December somethingth, street cleaning rules ARE in effect--make sure to check carefully to find out what days and hours the street you're parked on at any given point is a no-parking zone for street cleaning. Usually, it's something like one side of the street is no-parking between 8am-12pm first and third Mondays of the month, and the other side is second and fourth Tuesdays, and so on, and the nearby streets will have different days, so there's always some parking in the vicinity. Street cleaning is enforced very consistently, and those tickets are a whopping $50 a pop in Somerville.

The practical application of this is that the longest you can ever get away with leaving your car parked on the street anywhere in Somerville is 2 weeks, except in winter when it's a crapshoot of "until the first snow emergency."

Dear god. .

[shana-lyons.livejournal.com]

Can we all at least wait until it snows before we fight this year's annual battle of the Lawn Chair Spot Savers vs the It's a Public Street folks?

[lizzyclean.livejournal.com]

Street cleaning runs from April 1 to December 31st.
I remember fondly when street cleaning ended on November 1st. That extra month of not thinking about where you park on any given night was nice.

to add to the chorus...

[julishka.livejournal.com]

i lived up past teele for 10 years & only got a ticket for parked over 48 hours once. someone had called about my car because they thought it was abandoned. (i'd been trying to sell it after i'd bought a new car so it had been sitting for about a week in the same spot that summer.)

basically, they only ticket when someone complains.

of course, when it's a snow issue, the city will ticket for what they call snowbirds.

Re: Dear god. .

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Nope. Epic butthurt go!

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

Yep. But nothing beats the freedom of no longer having a car to worry about parking, period! The very infrequent moments when I wish I could just freakin' drive somewhere are more than made up for by no longer needing to worry about parking, tickets, accidents, gas, insurance, theft, break-downs, inspections, maintenance, and digging the fucking thing out of three feet of snow every other week. Carless living as a young, able-bodied, single, city-dweller rocks.

[mogwaikisses.livejournal.com]

Ok, so from your entry I am assuming that you had a car, and no longer have one?

How did you get rid of it? I listed mine on Craig's List, and the area's model-specific online club, but haven't even gotten one hit yet.

And apparently it is illegal to have a "For Sale" sign on your car when it is parked in Somerville, go figure.

I can't sell it to a dealer, because I owe more than the trade-in value, but not more than the private-party value, and I refuse to pay thousands to get out of my loan (not that I could afford that right now anyway).

So how the hell do I find a buyer?

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

Actually, I sold it back to the family member who'd sold it to me originally. She had been out of the country for a couple of years, and returned a few months after I moved to the city, and decided keeping a car wasn't worth the expense and hassle--serendipitous for the both of us, but not helpful in your case.

I did sell the car I owned before that one, a few years ago. I found a buyer via Craigslist, which didn't take too long, and I actually got several likely responses within a week or two of having posted it. It was a very old Saturn, though, not worth much, and I wasn't asking much for it, so I think it was pretty attractive to anybody who just wanted a cheap car that wouldn't immediately fall apart on them.

It might be worth asking your mechanic if he/she knows of any likely places to advertise, or any interested buyers.

Good luck!

watch for chalk marks!

[apple-doodle.livejournal.com]

A neighbor told me that the parking officers put a chalk mark on your tires, and they check it to see whether it's moved or not. So if you live in a high-traffic area where they're more likely to crack down on parking, just roll your car back or forward a tiny bit every 2 days, especially if you notice a chalk mark. Or just move it to an empty spot.

As for street cleaning, my advice is to have a calendar in a really visible place and mark the street cleaning days for the whole year with highlighter. And watch out for those weeks when the first Wednesday and the second Thursday end up in the same week!