Mayor sets up Parking Task Force

[winterhill.livejournal.com]

Just received this notice from my Alderman.

http://www.somervillema.gov/NewsDetail.cfm?instance_id=1464

Comments

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I think the only thing parking permits are really useful for is asking residents who want to park their cars on the street to chip in a little for the privilege. Most non-residents who would want to park in a resident zone probably fall into one of four categories:

1. People visiting residents
2. People patronizing businesses or
3. People working at businesses
4. People parking in one area so that they may commute to another area

Numbers 2 - 4 do not tend to overlap with the needs of residents with the exception of people working at, servicing, or patronizing businesses that are open well after 9-5, and most of those businesses tend to be located in business districts. Number 1 overlaps with residents, but those people are eligible for visitor permits so they'll be parking there anyway.

So I guess what I'm saying is that I tend to think requiring permits between 8 am and 6 pm mainly results in a lot of unused curb space.