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

[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.