New Parking Regs..what's the scoop?

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

The new parking regs are upon Davis Square. I personally hate the max of 1 hour on meters, and the ever-enthusiastic meter-readers. Have they put up the permit-only signs everywhere? How are you all handling the new regulations?

Comments

Re: Everybody hates them

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

OK, I read part of the articles above, and am confused.

1. If you feed a meter to stay in a spot longer than one hour, you can get ticketed?

2. If you park at a meter after 8 pm you can be ticketed because you don't have a resident sticker?

3. Does this mean that there is no parking at all, even at meters, in Davis Square/all of Somerville on Sundays, except with a resident sticker?

Where are you supposed to park if you have to, for instance, eat at a restaurant and you start eating at 7:45? Why don't signs/meters say that you can't park unless you're a resident after 8 pm? Why don't signs/meters say that it is illegal/ticket worthy to feed a meter?

Re: Everybody hates them

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

1) yes
2) I don't know
3) Sundays put permit parking in abeyance, so it's a parking free-for-all on Sundays, as I understand it.

Re: Everybody hates them

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Why don't signs/meters say that it is illegal/ticket worthy to feed a meter?

It says so in the Parking regs:

It shall be unlawful for any person to deposit or cause to be deposited in a parking meter any coin for the purpose of permitting the vehicle of which he is in charge to remain in a parking space beyond the maximum period of time allowed in a particular zone.

http://www.somervillema.gov/CoS_Content/documents/TrafficRegJuly09.pdf

It's been that way a LONG time.
Heck it was even the subject of snark at one point from someone parked in front of one of the game shops on Highland Ave - the gamer wrote a scathing obscenity filled note to the officer about how the gamer had fed the meter every hour.

Re: Everybody hates them

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

I was remembering the same passiveaggressivenotes.com post. it was in fact directly in front of Your Move Games.

Re: Everybody hates them

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/2008/01/01/your-move-officer/

Re: Everybody hates them

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

Where did you get #2 from? I looked at the two articles, at least briefly, and saw nothing about not being able to park at the meters after 8 PM unless you have a permit.

Plus, that just seems ridiculous and seriously a slap at any evening/night businesses!

Re: Everybody hates them

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

In the first article, there's this paragraph (read the last sentence):

The Somerville Parking Advocacy and Reform Coalition (SPARC) handed out a pamphlet of sorts to those present at this event. The pamphlet opens with the following statement: "On May 21st, 2009, The Somerville Traffic Commission voted to approve the following changes to City parking regulation: These changes are slated to be instated this summer." Some of the changes listed include residential permit parking only for any and all streets not currently designated, as well as all metered spots changing to residential permit parking only during non-enforced hours.

Re: Everybody hates them

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is So Not Cool.

Re: Everybody hates them

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Yer telling me. Your Move Games closes at midnight. Where am I supposed to park the car to pick up my fiancee to bring him home? You can't even get a business permit to work after 5 pm!

Re: Everybody hates them

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

Not to mention all the business conducted in the Square after 8. Bars, movies, concerts, restaurants. I'd be super-pissed if I owned a business down there!

Re: Everybody hates them

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Anywhere, because the parking police are not out patrolling at midnight.

Re: Everybody hates them

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Not correct, I've received a parking ticket, for not having a permit, at 0015.

Re: Everybody hates them

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I sit corrected.

I don't think that all the meters are resident-only spaces after 8 pm, though.

Re: Everybody hates them

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

It's so fucking depressing. Somerville has some great things that I'd really like to share with my suburbanite (and urbanites from inconvenient places like brighton) friends, but it's going to be night-impossible now..

Re: Everybody hates them

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

some of the meters in Davis are two hours, and some are one hour.

You can feed it for the limit of that time.

The signs say "two hour parking" or "one hour parking". That's supposed to clue you that you're only allowed to park there for that long.

Re: Everybody hates them

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

#1 has always been true. this isn't a new regulation. N-hour parking really means N-hour maximum parking, for which you must pay the meter in M-minute increments, but may not legally exceed the posted maximum.

Re: Everybody hates them

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. The posted maximum means what it says.

Re: Everybody hates them

[ron_newman]

I don't believe (2) is accurate.

Re: Everybody hates them

[masswich.livejournal.com]

I think there are some new meters for which you need a permit after the time is up (Beacon St., perhaps?) but not sure if that's now true for all of them.

In general lots of confusion over this.

Re: Everybody hates them

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

I did see that SPARC handout, as listed in the above quote/web page (my response to knowthyself. so it was the only conclusion I could make. But there aren't any signs, so who knows what you can get ticketed for or not?

Re: Everybody hates them

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

I think SPARC's handout, or the article's description of that handout, got it wrong.

The initial proposal included adding a restriction to streets that are now 2 hour parking 8 AM - 6 PM except by permit, such as Beacon and Elm, so they'd also be permit-only from 6 PM to 8 AM.

The Parking Solutions Task Force recommended changing this, so the commission's meeting included an agenda item to make them 2 hour parking except by permit from 10 AM to 2:30 AM, and permit-only from 2:30 AM to 10 AM.

Everything else on the agenda was minor day-to-day stuff unrelated to the current changes, which still stand. (Making all streets permit-only has been postponed to October 1.)

Re: Everybody hates them

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

10am? Are the businesses, that, say, sell coffee or take drycleaning dropoffs not complaining about how that cuts into their regular business hours by a significant chunk? That's an awfully late end to the residents-only overnight restriction. I've typically seen it as 2am-6am for towns that ban overnight parking or overnight nonresident parking, and didn't even notice that detail until now.