Dear PoP – Snow Emergency Parking Tickets

Photo by PoPville flickr user dullshick

“Dear PoP,

I wonder if you’ve heard from anyone else getting “snow route emergency” tickets after the storm. We parked our car in front of our house in Columbia Heights Friday right at 6:30p.m., as we often do on weekends, and it’s good on that side of the street until rush hour on Monday morning. This weekend, some city government ass literally tunneled a hole through the snow bank in which our car was buried in order to place a $250 ticket on our windshield. The ticket was time stamped just before 3a.m. on Sunday morning. My first question is, WTF? My second question is, is a ticket enforceable if the car was parked legally prior to the declaration of an emergency, and while the car is parked legally the spot suddenly becomes illegal due to weather? Our entire side of the street was lined with cars, as it pretty much is every weekend, but I haven’t confirmed if everyone got the same ticket. As far as we can tell the jackasses doing the ticketing made no effort to tow anyone, so it’s hard to see any point to it other than just a shameless effort to capitalize on the fact that people were immobilized by the storm in order to generate extra revenue. This strikes me as wrong on several levels.

I’d appreciate any insight from you or your readership. We do intend to dispute the ticket, but are still trying
to figure out the best angle.”

Well, I think you may be out of luck here. If a snow emergency has been declared it doesn’t matter if it is a weekend or weekday. (Snow emergency was lifted at 9:30 this morning.) I’d be sure to check the sign on your street. If the sign says snow emergency route then you have to pay. It is brutal to move one’s car in these situations but that’s the law.

What do you guys think am I missing something here?