parking

“you may have been ticketed and towed because it appears someone at DDOT didn’t do their job properly”

By Prince Of Petworth

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A reader reports:

“If you parked on the south side of the 1900 block of Calvert Street this morning you may have been ticketed and towed because it appears someone at DDOT didn’t do their job properly. The sign in the picture was just posted early this morning 5/12 despite having a printed date of 5/6 and an effective date of 5/9. I was outside late last night looking for these signs because I knew the repaving was scheduled to take place this week and confirmed that there were no signs as of 10pm. And yet the signs were up and parking enforcement was out there before I left for work this morning. She was just sitting in the car when I left and I didn’t have time to see if she would ticket anyone, but there are now reports on the Adams Morgan listserv that cars on that block were in fact ticketed and towed today. If this happened to you, you should be able to successfully contest it given the complete lack of advance notice. Compounding the DDOT ineptitude, it looked like someone was also granted a moving truck permit for today’s date along part of the stretch undergoing repaving. No idea how that was handled.”

“Police Parking in handicapped space”

By Prince Of Petworth

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“Dear PoPville,

Due to a recent injury, availability of handicap parking has, unfortunately, become a special concern in my household. (Thankfully, it’s an injury that will heal in a few months.) We’ve witnessed several frustrating examples of people misusing handicap parking, but this one takes the cake: Cop car taking up the only handicap parking spot for the building. And no, this wasn’t a quick in and out – the car has been there for an extended time. There are countless other spots that this cop could park in instead, since cops don’t have to worry about parking legally – I see cops parked all the time along the wall behind our building (which is labeled “no parking”) or at the end of a block behind the legal street parking. There is just absolutely no excuse for taking up the one spot reserved for disabled parkers!! Shameful! The annoying part is that there is no one to report it to – I’m sure that a complaint to the police would fall on deaf ears.”

Helluva Parking Job Vol. 77

By Prince Of Petworth

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“I came across this little gem of a parking job on my way home from work yesterday. This is on S between 16th and 17th NW. The road is narrow as it is and cars usually have to slow significantly to pass each other.

On a normal week, at least one parked car along this section of road will lose its side mirror bc of how narrow the passage is.

This driver managed to take up 2 spots, park facing the wrong direction, and is at least 2.5-3 feet from the curb. No surprise- Maryland plates.“

“trying to figure out if my daughter can register her car temporarily in DC for the summer?”

By Prince Of Petworth

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“Dear PoPville,

I’m trying to figure out if my daughter can register her car temporarily in DC for the summer while she lives in the GWU dorms. She will need her car for her internship and I want to make sure she can park it legally near where she is living. I live in Petworth and it’s not at all convenient for her to leave her car at my house.

I’ve read the DMV website, emailed them, and I still can’t figure out if this is possible and how to do it. Does anyone know?”

Parking Notes Vol. 17 – “You are preventing people who live here from having a pleasant parking experience.”

By Prince Of Petworth

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“Dear PoPville,

Some sign shaming happening on Biltmore Street, NW in Adams Morgan. Apparently, the gripe is they parked too far from the sign to allow for another car to park. I live a few houses down and this car has been here for a while but I do remember a motorcycle parked at the sign so when this car parked it was probably doing the right thing and not parking up against a motorcycle. I guess I’m just chuckling because of the part of the sign that is hard to read in the photo. It reads: “You are preventing people who live here from having a pleasant parking experience.” This author assumes a lot and I can only imagine the author is new to the neighborhood because it is never “a pleasant parking experience.”

Street Sweeping Starts For Real this Time on Monday – $45 if you forget to move your car

By Prince Of Petworth

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Photo by PoPville flickr user number7cloud

From DPW:

“Finally, it looks like the weather will cooperate with mild temperatures to allow the Department of Public Works to start its residential mechanical street sweeping program Monday, March 16. This seasonal sanitation program is scheduled to run each year from March 1-October 31 but the start has been delayed because of weeks of wintry weather.

Signs are posted that identify the days of the week and hours of the day when parking restrictions will be enforced so the sweepers can clean the streets effectively. The fine for violating this restriction is $45. Street sweeping parking restrictions will not be enforced until the sweeping program resumes March 16.”

Help! “the folks correctly parked on the north side of Kenyon all got $100 parking tickets”

By Prince Of Petworth

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“Dear PoPville,

The 1200 block of Kenyon is a bit of a confusing, um, clusterpark, around the time that street cleaning starts up again. When street cleaning stops, we need to park on the south side of the street every day.

When it starts back up, we need to park on the north side of the street (across from Harriet Tubman) on Mondays. The signs are clear but take some looking at because they are also confusing in a way that only street parking signs can be.

So today, the folks correctly parked on the north side of Kenyon all got $100 parking tickets for parking there during evening rush hour even though the signs say “except Monday” on the north side and ban parking on the south side from 7 to 7 for Monday street cleaning.

The hope is that each person incorrectly ticketed will NOT have to fight their ticket. It seems possible that the mistake will register before the tickets actually register on the dmv site. That has happened to me when I was incorrectly ticketed before if you can believe that …. but there are many a tale of people getting fines doubled or penalties added when fighting illegitimate tickets…”

Ed. Note: I wonder if this is related to the pushing back of street cleaning to March 16th? Even so, this seems messed up.

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