parking citations to get more expensive

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Wanna park illegally? You gotta pay more

Read the Somerville Journal article for the full scoop, but the salient details, as of Monday:

• The penalty for parking in the path of a street sweeper increased from $25 to $30


• On Aug. 12, the fines for street-sweeping violations will increase from $30 to $50


• Parking meter violation fines also increased from $15 to $20


• Parking in a bus stop will earn a $25 fine instead of $20.


• Handicapped parking violations will double from $100 to $200


• The distance residents must park their cars from street corners has increased from a minimum of 10 feet to minimum of 12 feet from a street corner, and the fine for violating the minimum distance from a street corner also increased from $20 to $30


• On Aug. 12, the fines for violating snow emergency parking rules will double from $50 to $100


• Fines for permit parking violations will also increase from $30 to $40


• Fines for parking within 10 feet of a fire hydrant, parking in a crosswalk or obstructing fire lanes will also go up from $30 to $50

*boggle* Those are pretty huge increases, all taken together. I'd really like to know what the "must park at least 12 feet from a street corner" thing is all about. Why is 10 feet not good enough anymore?

If I ever move from my current place, I'm not going to any house that doesn't have a driveway I can use. Jesus.

Comments

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Yikes. Yet another reason I'm glad I don't drive. :-)

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info. I don't live in Somerville, but I do park there from time to time.

Parking in a bus stop should be much, much more.

I'm guessing they lowered the to-corner distance is that so many people were complaining their way out of an 8' distance ticket. Plus, so many vehicles even in clogged Somerville are so huge these days -- you can't see over, through or around them to make a safe turn.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

Well, it's better than going back to towing for street sweeping. I guess.

[overstim.livejournal.com]

Why cant they put hydrants in bus stops and kill two birds with one stone?

[denonymous.livejournal.com]

Brilliant!

[miraclaire.livejournal.com]

12 feet? When I took drivers ed (in Quincy) they told us 8...

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

holycow. cambridge recently increased their fines by roughly this much, but i wasn't totally fussed because they were bringing it INLINE with what Somerville was before. ie, $15 permit parking fines obviously weren't deterring anyone. I feel really bad for the people I saw in Traffic & Parking yesterday--they weren't bad people, just made some parking mistakes. if you leave your car in the wrong place overnight you could get two tickets, now twice as much money, and these people were having trouble paying the old prices :(

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Several months ago I got two tickets for parking somewhere overnight a little too close to the curb, AFTER my housemate saw a parking enforcer eyeing my car and asked him if he was going to ticket it, because she would move it if so, and he said no, he wasn't going to. And then the next morning I had two $30 tickets on my car. I could have garrotted someone, I was so mad.

[tikva.livejournal.com]

I think this may be Somerville's way of trying to fix the "we're broke" issue.

For most of this, I feel kind of bad for people who drive.

But...but...$200 DOLLARS FOR PARKING IN A HANDICAP SPACE ILLEGALLY! *glee!!!*

(Me? Biased? Never!)

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

But...but...$200 DOLLARS FOR PARKING IN A HANDICAP SPACE ILLEGALLY! *glee!!!*

Oh yeah, that part I have no problem with. :)

[cutieperson]

total glee, if anyone ever enforced it.

i'm very close to either blocking their egress and calling the parking office to get someone to ticket or making up a huge batch of stickers that say "i'm an asshole for parking in handicapped spots".

[rdcf.livejournal.com]

If they really wanted to raise serious cash, they'd park a policeman right in the middle of the Powder House Square rotary, the Pedestrian Rotary of Death (tm) and ticket all the cars who run the red lights and play chicken with the pedestrians.

I walk across that rotary a minimum of 10 times a week. I always push the button, wait for the red light (and for the red light to register with the drivers) and cross in the crosswalk. I average about 4 near misses a week.

One day last week, a guy even went up on the side walk to go around the person stopped at the red light and he nearly run me down in the crosswalk. So admittedly I'm a little bitter.

[agnosticoracle.livejournal.com]

As tikva says above I suspect this has a lot to do with Somerville being short of money. It is how we are paying for Romney's budget cuts I guess.

[tisana.livejournal.com]

If we're short of money, what's with all the community events like fireworks and free movie screenings?

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

The article says this is how they're avoiding property tax increases. Hmm.

[mangosteen]

It is how we are paying for Romney's budget cuts I guess.

Yes, but it will only affect bad people.

(duck, run, hide, etc.)

[tisana.livejournal.com]

So...OK, carry a tape measure in my car, got it. Though I would love it if certain corners did have people adhere to that, since it's dangerous and hard to see around them when they park right up to the corner.

The snow one will be an issue again, won't it? As in "Where the hell do you want all of those who don't have driveways to put their cars during a blizzard, huh?"

[cutieperson]

well, during the blizzards they want you to use the public lots (and in some cases school lots). the problem with that is even the closest ones are too far for some people, and once the ban is lifted you only have a few hours to get the cars out, often mid-day.

12 ft from corner

[friedapplepie.livejournal.com]

definitely people should park away from the corners for safety. it would help, though, if they'd paint the curbs to let us know where 12 feet is - we don't all have tape measures to spare.

[aslant.livejournal.com]

hmm. this is why i'm moving to lynn.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Lynn, Lynn, city of sin! :)

[aslant.livejournal.com]

weird. my boyfriend has a car with out-of-state plates (for the last two years) and he can definitely pay the tickets without registering. who told you that? that can't be right.

[toddis.livejournal.com]

And why is this a big deal, you could just park legally.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Sometimes people just make mistakes. Sometimes the parking enforcers are assholes (see one of my comments above), or wrong. Sometimes there are mitigating circumstances. See kungfupolarbear's reply just above your own. Sometimes your housemates move your car out of your driveway into a spot that wasn't legal, so you get ticketed (yes, this has happened to me). Also, increasing the minimum space from corners will functionally decrease the number of legal spots.

But, all of that aside, I posted it here because it's useful information for people who live and park in Somerville. If you don't live here, or park here, or know anyone who does, by all means feel free to ignore it. *shrug*

[simply-juniper.livejournal.com]

I'm very happy I have a driveway and no longer work in Somerville. Thank you for this information.