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

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.