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

[toddis.livejournal.com]

I agree that sometimes mistakes are made and there are extreme circumstances for any type of situation. I responded the way I did because you are "pissed off" about it. I agree it is useful info and thank you for posting, however my opinion is that that parking fines are not high enough in general to make people follow the rules(I used to be more than willing to pay a parking ticket rather than walk in the rain/cold). I apologize if you think I was being malicious. I see people like my roommate who I remind to park within a foot of the curb, warn days in advance about street sweeping who still get tickets simply because they don't take the time to park correctly in the first place. I also see people with out of state plates parking on the street(for over a year at a time) and almost never touching there car(which is also a fine if you leave it in one spot over 48 hours not that I have ever seen that one enforced).

Unfortunately the rules have to be strict because too many people abuse anything that is not strictly regulated.

Sorry again for my first terse response, if I am going to disagree with something I should explain myself it is only fair.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

It's okay, I'm also annoyed about a bunch of things unrelated to this, so I'm probably more snarky than usual. Sorry for being snarky in return. :-}

I think what makes me pissed off about it is stuff like raising one of the fines twice in the space of a month (the street-sweeping citations). I think that's an obnoxious way to go about it. They increase all the fines, in some cases by substantial amounts, while simultaneously changing the regs so that there are fewer valid spots than before, rigging the system against the residents of the city. That irks me.

I've certainly gotten my share of parking tickets, both in Somerville and in Cambridge. Many of them were well-deserved, and I'll take my lumps for those, but some of them weren't and it's irksome to get nailed even harder by fines that vastly outstrip the rate of inflation. I sure wish I could get a 25%-50% raise, y'know? :-}

[aslant.livejournal.com]

[we had the towed-for-over-48-hours thing happen to us. but we're on highland ave, which is pretty heavily trafficked, so maybe they pay more attention.]