48 hour resident parking rule

[robin bobo]

Hi,

I just got slapped with a parking ticket for leaving my car in one spot for 48 hours. (I am a resident.) I guess it was obvious from the snow piled on top of it.

But this just sounds like a bad law. Why would you want to incentivize people to move their cars every 2 days? I am not blocking thing, I am in a legal parking spot, no one is hurt by me leaving my car where I park it all of the time. If they have problem with me leaving snow on my car, then the law should be, "Residents must clear snow from car within 48hours of snow storm."

rb.

Comments

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Good luck with getting it changed. It's been discussed in this, and other, forums at least as early as 2005 (at least), and it still hasn't been changed. The city's theory is that by requiring those who park on the streets to move their cars every two days, this frees up more parking spaces, and reduces the attitude that a particular parking space belongs to a specific resident.

All in all, I doubt they'll change it.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

all of this. this comes up as a discussion point every couple of years.

[robin bobo (from livejournal.com)]

OK, good to know that this is a well-recognized point of frustration. Thanks for the historical perspective on it.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Plus the which that except for snowstorms it is rarely enforced if you are following the rules (not in someone's driveway entrance, not on a crosswalk, not in an intersection, etc.) It's irritating, but not a huge deal in practice.

And now you have extra incentive to get the car cleaned sooner before it all sets into ice anyway, I guess.

[teko.livejournal.com]

Exactly. In my experience, it's very irregularly enforced. If you're a longtime resident whose car they recognize, the parking cops will rarely if ever ticket you. After a snow emergency last year, a car with a local resident permit parked on my street, barely overlapping my driveway. I filed tickets with 311 after the car hadn't been moved for two days; traffic cops came out, gave it a 'warning' ticket, and then a 'real' ticket a day later. But then they'll ticket other cars like the one above right after 48 hrs have passed.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Yep. The good-old-boy thing is alive and well. I remember calling in because somebody had parked at the corner completely blocking the (bright yellow, very obvious) curb cut. I figured they had just pulled over to run in somewhere, but I finally called when I noticed the car was still there hours later. A cop eventually came by, looked at the car, made a phone call, and a shortly thereafter, somebody came out and moved it. No ticket issued. You think you or I would have gotten that lucky?

[rmd.livejournal.com]

I figured they're more likely to ticket cars after storms because the permits are obscured, too.

[jwg.livejournal.com]

Years ago I lived in Manhattan where they had alternate size parking so they could sweep every other day so you had to move your car every day.

[dial-zero.livejournal.com]

That sounds like it sucks, but it's not the street sweeping schedule that Somerville has, so there has got to be some other motivation.

[totient]

When the city makes a temporary no-parking zone they put up signs 48 hours in advance. The 48 hour rule makes it so that if they tow you, you don't get to complain that you didn't see the no-parking signs, because you should have gone out and moved your car in the meantime and seen them then.

Separately, the city budget depends on automotive excise tax revenue. They really don't like it when Somerville residents register their cars at a friend or family member's house in Cambridge or Boston so that they can park for free near their work (and Cambridge and Boston don't like that either, for different reasons). If your car is covered in snow the PCOs can't tell if you're playing this game and they're really motivated to keep you from doing so.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

When the city makes a temporary no-parking zone they put up signs 48 hours in advance.

In theory.

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

If they don't then the tickets/towing are illegal [in Somerville and Boston, I don't know about Medford yet].

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

As has been shown in this community before, good luck proving they didn't post them 48 hours prior, and good luck appealing a ticket, or getting your car back for free.

http://davis-square.livejournal.com/638326.html
http://davis-square.livejournal.com/689797.html
http://davis-square.livejournal.com/720824.html

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

Looking through the linked threads, I see one person got their money back, and no one else bothered to try. Seems like a self fulfilling prophecy.

[willdasil.livejournal.com]

I believe that if you appeal you will be fine.

Good Luck!

Will

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

What are you smoking?

[willdasil.livejournal.com]

Feels like you never appealed in Somerville for a parking ticket. Last time I did the Clerk took 3 parking tickets off. It is about what you tell them. If she come up with a logic reason why she could not move the car they will take it off. Make sure you appeal Robin! By the way I don't smoke.

[craigindaville.livejournal.com]

As I learned from this forum a few years ago (confirmed by the one and only Tom Champion) the best way to appeal a ticket is NOT to actually file a written appeal; those will almost always be denied. Instead, let the timeframe for responding pass, and the city will send a reminder of the fine, along with a hearing date and time, to the house where the car is registered.

In my experience, and in many others who have posted here, doing this appeal in person leads to a higher likelihood (not a guarantee, of course) of tickets being overturned or changed.

The hearing is really just you and an administrator from T&P sitting in an office talking about what happened and why you think the ticket was in error or otherwise unfair. It might work, it might not, but if you can take an hour off from work fairly easily it's worth the trip.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Can you also just show up at the parking office with no appointment to talk to the hearing officer?

[craigindaville.livejournal.com]

From my memory and experience, no. In fact, if I remember correctly, there are signs that say something to that effect in the T&P office (ie: "Appointment required for hearing officer hours" or something like that). However, that is stated without any basis in fact or policy so YMMV.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

From the last time I was in there, I remember seeing something about drop-in hours, when anyone could go and wait in line for a hearing, however, I can't seem to find anything on the city's website about it. Either I'm not remembering this correctly, or possibly the policy has changed. Or it's just not publicized.

[robin bobo (from livejournal.com)]

I did previously fight a double-ticket-for-same-offense ticket slam. And had one of the tickets removed. For that, I felt I had a compelling case. ("I didn't know"+ "I didn't see first ticket" + second ticket came within 36 hours + I took immediate action on receipt of 2 tickets + it was unnecessary to give me 2 tickets for 1 offense.)

I am not sure i have a compelling case when the rule is to move your car every 48 hours, and clearly, with snow on my car several days after a snowstorm, I have not moved my car. I feel like "I didn't know" is an excuse they must have heard a trillion times, and won't convince them of much. I am left without recourse if Somerville simply elects to create and sometimes enforce stupid rules.

[craigindaville.livejournal.com]

The BoA considered changing/loosening this rule recently (see: http://somerville.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/somerville-parking-rule-one-alderman-calls-unwelcomin63950d4353). I don't know how far that got, as my limited search just brought up articles about the start of the conversation, not whether there were/are any next steps planned. Worth a note to your alderman.

And while it's a pain (I also utilize street parking, but have an insanely nice downstairs neighbor who lets me park at the back of the driveway when I'm out of town for a few days), it should be noted that this isn't uniquely Somervillian. In the last few communities I've lived in both in MA and on the west coast there were similar rules in place.

[renee campo (from livejournal.com)]

I have a resident on my street that has 7 cars ... all with resident stickers and I called about him leaving his car for weeks at a time in front of my home. No one wants to visit my home because parking is so hard on my street. I was told by Parking at 311 that they do not enforce the 48 rule during the winter! And if I do call to report car has not moved, it starts 48 hours from THAT day. It's a major issue and something needs to be done. I brought it to my alderpersons attention but it went nowhere. Fight it!

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

In my experience, except in rare cases, winter is the *only* time they enforce it.

[mjperson.livejournal.com]

Yeah, winter is the only time it's obvious that the car didn't move. Other times, I went out and then parked back in the same place is too easy a defense so they don't bother.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

My understanding of this sort of rule is that they don't want people to store unused cars on the streets. It will probably remain thus as long as the excise tax (which gets you a resident permit) is cheaper than a year's garage space rental.

[ron_newman]

Such a rule is not needed, because during non-winter months, each side of the street is swept twice a month. Any car that remains on the side to be swept can be ticketed.

[greyautumnrain.livejournal.com]

It is an exceedingly dumb law, and they can't really enforce it unless it's obvious you haven't moved because there is a foot snow on your car. Nearly every weekday I leave my favorite spot in front of my house at 7:55 AM only to return and park in that very same place about 20 minutes later. I doubt the people handing out tickets can actually tell that I've moved. I suppose that during winters like this they want to avoid letting cars sit under a bank of snow for all of February, but there are probably saner ways of accomplishing that.

I guess the take home from this is next time just clear the snow off your car so they can't prove you didn't move.

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

I worried for a little while about parking in the same spot that I left earlier in the day, until I realized they don't ticket for that.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

Easier method:

- Shovel out your car.
- Pull out of your parking space.
- Pull back in.

No need to go anywhere.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

I kind of like the rule myself, though I realize I'm in the minority. If you want to put your car in long-term storage, the streets of Somerville are not a great place, since they're already fairly impacted. However, the time window should be longer, perhaps 4-5 days.