A friend of mine sends an update on last week’s Parking Notes Vol. 100 ‘It has been parked here since July 2012’.
Ed. Note: Dang it!
parking
Thanks to a friend of mine for sending from near H Street, NE.
Ed. Note: I think the answer is, obviously, because this car is so freaking awesome…
“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.”
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.”
“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.
Photo by PoPville flickr user Mike Lock
From DPW:
“The Department of Public Works is postponing the start of the residential mechanical street sweeping program to Monday, March 16 because of continuing winter storms and subfreezing temperatures.. This seasonal sanitation program is scheduled to run each year from March 1-October 31 but the start has been delayed in the past because of 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. (more…)
14th and Park Road, NW
From DPW:
“During the snow emergency that goes into effect Thursday, March 5, DCUSA neighbors may park in the garage for $1.00. Please follow these instructions:
Please get your ticket at the kiosk and park on P2 level. Keep the ticket in your car. Go to the parking office and give the staff your tag number and make, model, and color of your car.
When you are ready to leave the garage, return to the parking office, pay the $1 and leave as usual.”
Photo by PoPville flickr user John M
On the one hand:
“I’ve seen quite a few posts on Popville about little or no notice when posting emergency parking signs, but not much about enforcement. I recently moved between apartments within the district and found the enforcement to be essentially non-existent.
New rules have been put in place to help avoid ticketing and towing when the signs are not posted at least 72 hours. Now the signs must be posted in advance and verified by DDOT in order for vehicles parked in the reserved spaces to be ticketed and towed. Well, at least in theory…
During my recent move, I had my signs up on a Sunday in advance of a Friday morning move. The exact start time was 5 PM on a Thursday as I anticipated vehicles would be parked in the spaces regardless of hanging the signs for the moving truck. I was right.
At 10 PM the evening before my move, I called to request the four cars to be ticketed and towed. The next morning, I got up at 6 AM. No tickets. No towing. I called to follow-up on the status of my request and was informed that there is a bizarre Cinderella rule and my request whether addressed or not was closed at midnight and that I would need to file a new one.
Subsequent to filing a new request, I was informed that the city workers who can actually write tickets would not be clocking-in for work until 7 AM and that I should then allow 2 hours for them to arrive. In addition, the police are not able to write tickets now because they do not have access to know whether the signs were verified as hung at least 72 hours in advance.
In short, there is absolutely no way to enforce these signs for an early morning move and I essentially paid $55 in order to avoid a larger ticket for having a moving truck blocking the street. Not being able to park in the designated spaces also complicates the moving process and can increase the amount of time professional movers are on the clock (i.e., I pay more). I’m wondering if anyone else has a similar experience, especially with getting a refund. I’ve contacted DPW, Office of the Mayor, and two city council members with little progress.”
and on the other hand:
“I live on a block that manages to have a lot of resident turnover – brownstones with group houses and apt buildings. It follows that there are frequent moving trucks and no parking signs. A few between trees is to be expected and understood. Moving sucks and you don’t want to have to lift or move furniture and items any farther from your house than need be. But recently I have noticed people stretching out their private moving zones longer than the Middle East peace process. Just tonight someone thought it within their right to rope off almost 90 feet of public parking space to enable their move. That’s just shy of seven average car lengths, a full three more than I believe DDOT allows. I took down one of the signs in order to call the offending party, but I am curious if PoP folks have grumbled about this recently. My car has been towed several times when people throw the signs up a day or two, or even the night before they move, when they are supposed to have them up, what five days in advance? Just strikes me that this issue is ripe for debate. How many others are riled? Having a car in the city is a luxury, but the oversight over the moving sign industry is certainly lax, in my experience.”
Photo by PoPville flickr user Katie Yaeger Rotramel
“Dear PoPville,
DC has parking time limits in many areas, but the ParkMobile app keeps letting you pay. Unfortunately, this resulted in a ticket. Sketchy on my part, perhaps, but I do find it ridiculous that the city continued to take my money through the app only to ticket me. I protested the ticket but lost and will pay it, since I’m a decent citizen (I guess), but frankly I see a serious problem here. Either the app can alert you that you can’t stay in the zone, or a ticket is unfair — can’t have it both ways.
Perhaps others have had a similar experience.
Update:
I heard back from ParkMobile; I emailed them explaining the situation and this is what they had to say when explaining that the app keeps allowing you to extend your time and pay: “Our zones are configured in the way DC dictates and they haven’t asked us to restrict parking for this regulation.” It seems the app has the technology…but DC chooses not to use it, I’m sure for their benefit.”
“Dear PoPville,
I have been trying unsuccessfully to get a piece of machinery removed from my street for a few weeks. This is on 100 block of V Street, NW in Bloomingdale, a street that already has half of its parking gobbled up by the water project. The machine is from a contractor that is renovating a house, it’s not part of the water project. I’m not quite sure how this machine is helpful in a home renovation to begin with, but I have seen the contractors move it in the morning so they can park their cars directly in front of the building they’re working on. I don’t think they’ve even been working on the house for the last week or two. There are and never have been “no parking” permits posted.”
Update: DPW tells OP that DCRA handles construction equipment that park without permits because this backhoe has no tag nor a vin number.”