Towing cars in Davis Square to allow traffic through streets, and common sense-which I seem to lack.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

I turned right onto Chester from Elm last night around 6:30pm-ish. There were 2 policemen standing off to the side as I parked in the first available spot on the left side of the street. After I had parked, one of the officers came over and knocked on the front passenger window (would have been more difficult to get to the driver's side), and told me that the cars parked in front of me were going to be towed because there wasn't enough room for cars to get down the street, and he told me to use my common sense. He was right on the first count, certainly; I could not actually exit my parking space and go down the one way street because there was no room, and I had to back up and turn right onto the street that connects Chester with Day Street, next to the parking lot, amidst at least 2 other cars waiting for me (policeman was directing traffic, thankfully, or that alone would have been a mess).

About common sense, though? I confess I am a creature of habit and have many ingrained traffic/parking habits, and though if I had more brain space last night (don't ask), I might have figured that out in the moment, but where I was mentally was simply in "find an available space and park", autopilot. Yes, it is obvious looking back, and yes I feel a bit stupid for not having gotten to that myself, but I am not sure I have ever dealt with this amount of snow while looking for parking in the city and taking the first available spot has pretty much worked for me.

The moral of this story, kids? Be sure a car has enough space to get down a street between your car and the parked car on the other side of the street or you might get towed. I was lucky to get the warning, the folks parked in front and to the side of me were not so lucky.

EDIT:Of course, if you park in a space where there is no car on the opposite side parked and, thus, decide that it is ok to park there, and someone comes up and parks on the opposite side of the street later so as to make it impossible for folks to get through, I am not sure how the police/tow company decides which car to tow. Oof.

Comments

[xuth.livejournal.com]

I've always hated how people keep parking further and further from the curb as more snow fell. It drives me completely batty. Why was the police officer not ticketing (and towing if necessary) anyone who was more than 1 foot from the curb as the law requires? If the snow is there keeping you from doing that you should either move the snow or not park there.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

I hear you. It's a tricky situation when there is a shortage of parking. I am not sure I have entertained the notion of bringing a shovel and just kind of double parking til I have shoveled enough snow out of the way (particularly with the possibility of traffic piling up behind me), and it can be tricky to figure out where to put said snow since it can't go in the street or the sidewalks (and particularly difficult for folks with back trouble). Personally, I truly am a creature of habit with much on my mind, and I just didn't think of it--driving mode and parking mode are different mindsets for me, but I am pretty sure I will think of it now, particularly because I know I got lucky.

Why was the police officer not ticketing (and towing if necessary) anyone who was more than 1 foot from the curb as the law requires?

For one, I am not sure it can be determined at this point in time where one foot out even was (even if you happened to have a ruler or a tape measure handy--there is *a lot* of snow). Also, due to the limited amount of parking, I expect the police would get flack from folks who could not otherwise park near where they live.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

It would be nice if the city did a better job of clearing the even side of the street. What exactly is the point of the parking ban if the end result is going to be blocking off all the parking on the even side of the street for the foreseeable future, which is the case on my street and many of the ones around me.

I don't support people parking like asshats, either, but the whole situation is very frustrating. The City puts a lot of resources into collecting parking-related revenue and it'd be nice if they put more effort into actually maintaining parking.

[leko.livejournal.com]

It also drives me nuts when people park super far from the curb opposite driveways, making it very difficult to negotiate the turn. This happens all the time on Adams street (winter hill) and the driveway leads to parking for a couple dozen people.

It's not only about courtesy, it's about minimizing the chances that someone accidentally hits your car.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Yup--my car was hit that way a number of years back, but it was just aesthetic and I did not have the internal resources at that time to file a complaint, particularly since, when I asked a guy who lived in that house if he knew who might have done it, his defensiveness actually got kind of scary, so I let it go (let the car go not too long after, too). Thanks for making that point.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

My biggest adventure every morning on my commute is just backing out of my driveway. Next thaw, I'm taking the nearest snow pile down to a boulder.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

when i lived in brighton i actually took to shoveling out a new space every day and night rather than park in our shared driveway because of this. (and i drive a golf!) i think many people just don't think about it. they know parking is tough to find and they aren't thinking about their surroundings. this gets amplified when people park right up to the curb cuts on the side with the driveway too. so you have to back straight out, but then, you're almost into the car across the street. i have seen some neighborhoods put up their own signs about this.

[dcltdw]

The moral of this story, kids? Be sure a car fire truck has enough space to get down a street between your car and the parked car on the other side of the street

Never driven a fire truck, but a box ambulance? Yeah. Those suckers are wide. Still, my impression is that they are nimble little suckers compared to an engine, or worse, ladder or tower truck.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Yes--thank you for making that point to the absent-minded op (me); I clearly need all of them I can get:)

[mjrocks98.livejournal.com]

Yes, fire trucks & ambulances need access, I just wish the city would think about that in the tiny streets of Magoun Square & truck some of this snow out of there. Cars can barely make it down Nashua St. there's no way a fire truck is fitting down there. Guess the people who live down there just have to hope they don't need services.

[coeceo.livejournal.com]

That is tricky, I usually take cell phone pics of my car and the car across the street to document as needed.

I parked on the even side the other day and the car on the odd side was 1.5' off the curb so it made it a little tight. But again, I took pictures to show it was that guys fault that it was tight, they definately could have gotten much closer to the curb.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

That's impressive. Wow. How often do you do this? Just when there's lots of snow to deal with?

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Nobody has suggested what I consider the best solution: the city should post temporary no-parking signs on streets where there's not enough room to park on both sides because of snow piles. Cambridge does this, and it works just fine.

It works best if the temporary ban is on the snow emergency side (the even side in Somerville), and the signs go up before the emergency ends. But even if they go up afterwards, it still works a lot better than not posting signs at all and depending on people's estimation of road width. Especially if they're going to tow.

[avjudge]

But that would mean admitting that they don't plow to the curb, that their plow-made snowbank had just narrowed the street by a couple feet. I don't think they'll do that.

[coeceo.livejournal.com]

I dunno, sounds like a waste of resources having city employees post signs during snow emergencies. You'd be better off giving them a shovel.

[emannths.livejournal.com]

What if we didn't suspend street cleaning during the winter? During the allotted street cleaning window, all cars are gone and a plow can come through and clean up the snow all the way to the curb.

[koloratur.livejournal.com]

Exactly - I cannot understand why this isn't the plan. If the city had dealt with the snow on odd-sides during the warmer days of the month, we would not be having these problems now.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

It's a good idea.

But keep in mind that clearing frozen piles of snow takes much longer than passing through with a street sweeper. It requires a front-end loader with a scoop, and takes 30-60 minutes per block.

[pch1.livejournal.com]

It's too bad they couldn't figure out a way to push extra snow into the sewers. Maybe take the grate off and clear extra space be dumping it into the open sewers.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Myself, I wonder why we can't create a handheld torch of some sort that gave off enough heat to melt the snow faster, but then I'm not a geek like the folks around (the answer I get to this question for some reason refuses to stick in my mind. Kinda strange, I know).

Also, with your idea, there might maybe be flooding? Not sure.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

I don't know if these are available in hardware stores anymore (likely all are sold out) but if you want to remove some of the ice in a parking space to fit your car, you might want a sidewalk ice scraper http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1277224&kw=ice+shovel&origkw=ice+shovel&searchId=54202919553

I've got one like it to get rid of the ice on my walkway/porch, and it can't be beat for ripping into fairly deep ice effectively. If you have to dig your own space, you might want to put one of these things in your car trunk.

Garbage trucks

[msiebler.livejournal.com]

The city will also tow your car if the garbage trucks cannot fit through; as i saw was done this Tuesday on my block to some poor fool.
It would be nice if the city had infinite money to remove snow; but it doesn't ; parking fines go into the general budget and do not create enough revenue to pay for basic snow plowing; and thank god they don't plow all the way to the curb otherwise the sidealks would be covered. Its not like we have a yard to put the snow that is currently sitting on the street.
So forget about having them go down every side street to clear out the snow; its going to be there for a while.
I would rather they spend the money they have in this budget to keep fire stations open and police rather than making sure street parking is there.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

honestly, by law you need to park within 1' of the curb. no common sense really needed--just follow the law.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Even if I had a tape measure on me at the time, I am not at all certain if I could tell where the curb was. I did look what looked like the end of a shoveled out driveway to see if I could ascertain an approximation of where the curb ended and I failed to do so (I did, in fact, think of that, particularly after noticing the policemen nearby, but to no avail, so I defaulted to the queues of where the folks ahead of me parked in relation to the snow, which clearly was a dumb move since they were going to be towed. I know I got lucky).

[trtls.livejournal.com]

The city is trying to keep up. Somerville Patch (http://somerville.patch.com/articles/snow-banks-creating-dangerously-narrow-roads-city-towing-cars-that-block-passage)