parking

The art of slowly circling blocks in concentric circles looking for parking in a mad dance of desperation is dying.

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user fromcaliw/love

And I’m OK with that though many will never know the joy of landing the spot. That feeling is indescribable. Like a perfect parallel parking job. I digress.

From DDOT:

“The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) today announced the release of an updated version of its parkDC mobile app. Version 2.0 of the app lets users identify, and navigate to, on-street and off-parking throughout the District of Columbia, with the option of searching for parking spaces by price and/or time period filters.

Developed by DDOT, the parkDC app was released in December 2016 to help reduce the time needed to find parking, improve turnover of high-demand spaces, provide better parking information and reduce congestion. The first version of the app provided real-time parking availability and rate information for the Penn Quarter and Chinatown neighborhoods, in the area bounded by H Street, 3rd Street, E Street and 11th Street NW. This zone is the location of DDOT’s demand-based pricing pilot program that uses meter rate adjustments to improve parking availability.

New Features (more…)

“Has anyone else ever had their car lost by D.C.?”

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoPville,

My friend recently had her car recovered after DC towed and lost it for about 8 weeks. Her car was in a temporary Emergency, No Parking area and was towed. The city told her they ticketed her car and towed 5 others around hers, but not hers. Can you hear my eyes rolling? Some construction workers said hey saw her black SUV towed and an embassy said they had surveillance tape of it, though they couldn’t share it. Finally, 8ish weeks later, they found it in a tow lot. With several other long lost cars. All had windows busted in. Crazy! Has anyone else ever had their car lost by DC? Seriously lost, not towed around the corner. Clip of the news story here.

Ed. Note: They sure have.

Legend

By Prince Of Petworth

Thanks to Marcy for sending last night:

“Spotted: Jack Evans’ car in a tow zone. Perks of being a DC council member??”

The man is a legend, if that’s the right word. Rules? hahaha do as I say peasants. And thank me for telling you. At least it didn’t snow last night.

Ed. Note: We’ve previously learned that Council Members are not obligated to follow parking regulations.

Eligible D.C. residents can now apply for the 2019 Visitors Parking Pass

By Prince Of Petworth

From DDOT:

“The Visitor Parking Pass (VPP) program is designed to allow guests of District residents to park for more than two hours on Residential Permit Parking or RPP-zoned blocks. A VPP is only valid during the hours of RPP enforcement and in the same RPP zone and ANC boundary as the residence. The passes are not necessary on holidays or other times when parking restrictions are not subject to enforcement.

The VPP can be used to provide temporary Residential Permit Parking (RPP) privileges in the following eligible wards:

Ward 1 – all Ward 1 residents
Ward 2 – 2F only. All other Ward 2 ANCs have opted out of the program.
Wards 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 – all residents that live on RPP blocks

Residents who live on a commercial zone block are not eligible for VPP or RPP. Non-residential address types are not eligible for VPP/RPP.

Approved VPPs are mailed every Friday via first class mail.

How to Register for VPP

To register for a Visitor Parking Pass online, please follow these six easy steps: (more…)

“parking sign shenanigans”

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoPville,

I got a kick out of these parking sign shenanigans while walking the dogs this morning. Someone who is moving in or out has left these notes in the windshield of every car on the south side of Warner St. They also put up actual official reserved parking signs in the middle of the block which were printed sortofmaybe in adherence with the requisite 72 hours of notice, but my car is parked nowhere near those parking signs. Think this ambitious mover is trying to trick anyone on the block who doesn’t know better into moving their cars for extra space or an insurance policy beyond the spots they legally reserved?”

Are these signs legit?

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoPville,

Wondering if you could take a look at the above photo and weigh in on whether it’s legitimate. These appeared Sunday (11/11) on both sides of our entire block in Shaw. While parking will be unrestricted in the evenings, the 7 AM start time screws over everyone who leaves for work at a later time than that, and to restrict parking on both sides of a whole block seems like a lot. What’s more, these parking signs don’t look like the usual ones I’m used to (maybe because it’s tree work, but I’m not sure) and I’m not sure enough notice was given. Am I overreacting or missing something? What say the readers?”

“Because I don’t drive much, I’m trying to figure out if I made an etiquette or rules mistake.”

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoPville,

I’m car free so don’t drive much, but recently rented a car for some errands. In the middle of a block on 11th street, I got into position to parallel park, checked my mirrors and noticed a bike and some traffic coming up behind me. As I waited for the traffic to pass (a pause of no more than 5 or 10 seconds), the biker became irate, cursed at me for being in the bike lane, and swung something (I couldn’t tell exactly what) into the side of the rental car, leaving a significant dent and scratch.

Because I don’t drive much, I’m trying to figure out if I made an etiquette or rules mistake. (more…)

“Have you ever heard of this?”

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoPville,

I usually pay my parking tickets without a fight (even the really questionable ones), but this seems like a whole nother level to me. Have you ever heard of this? I got this in front of the church at Shepherd and 8th NW. It’s particularly irritating as I am consistently blocked in on weekends by double parkers at that church.”

I guess it depends if there were emergency no parking signs posted with appropriate notice?

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