parking

Dear PoPville – How Do We Get this Car Towed?

By Prince Of Petworth

MonroeCar

“Dear PoPville,

There has been an abandoned car parked continuously in the 1200 block of Monroe Street NW for nearly four months, and I’ve been unable to get it towed. It was first ticketed in March 2014, and it’s been ticketed every Monday (for street sweeping violations) since then. The tickets just continue to pile up on the windshield. I submitted a 311 request in April to get the car towed, and I contacted Jim Graham’s constituent services in May for help getting in touch with DPW– both times I received no response.

I don’t understand how an abandoned car can sit in the middle of Columbia Heights (where parking is already at a premium) for four months. Any idea how to finally get this abandoned car out of the neighborhood? Thanks for any help you can provide!”

Some Pretty Impressive Parking

By Prince Of Petworth

ridiculous_dc_parking

A reader sends Sunday afternoon and writes:

“T street between 17 and 18th NW. Been that way since yesterday evening. Solid parking skills”

My guess is the driver was looking for a spot for 30+ minutes, finally found a tight one and on the fifth attempt just said “fahq it”…

Dear PoPville – What the…?

By Prince Of Petworth

parking_pass

“Dear PoPville,

I saw this sign in a car parked on my block in Logan Circle. Wtf? Can we all declare ourselves unticketable?

The full text is:

Please do not ticket this vehicle. There is NO ticketing of vehicles with Zone Two RPP stickers at this hour per:
Department of Public Works
Councilman Jack Evans
Thank you!”

Ed. Note: One of the many pros of owning your own laminating machine…

Dear PoPville – I am not a Douchebag

By Prince Of Petworth

douchebag

“Dear PoPville,

Maybe I’m overreacting (or maybe I don’t appreciate being called a douchebag so early) but I saw this note on my car this morning as I was parked in Zone 2 on the street and immediately became angry, grabbed it, and crumpled it up [ in the U Street Neighborhood right off of Florida just past Darnell’s]. I should have taken a picture of my parking but I was on my way to work and I also know what “double parking” is and knew I wasn’t a perpetrator. Is there some definition of the term that I am not aware of? In my experience if there is a space on the street I park there; who would be so bold (or so bored) to take the time to write a note, label me a douchebag, stop at my car, and place it on my windshield? Does the note writer know that people come and go from street spots all day and night? Has anyone else received an aggressive note with no merit?”

Ed. Note: Sometimes people are jerks, sometimes people are aggressive and sometimes the two intersect.

Dear PoPville – Social Security Number on Parking Ticket?!?

By Prince Of Petworth

parking_ticket_social_security_number
Photo by PoPville flickr user BrennaLM

“Dear PoPville,

I had parallel parked on a residential block of 11th street NW in a spot that was apparently reserved for a handicapped person that lived there. I did not see the sign (it was dark and I wasn’t looking for it, because I didn’t realize that a personal reserved handicapped spot was a thing–dumb, I know). When I came back to my car, I saw the $250 ticket, which was a gut punch, worsened by the fact that there was a free spot right in front of me.

I thought that was the worst of it, but as I studied the ticket (which was sitting on my windshield, face up, with no envelope, for all to see), I saw that it not only had my first, middle and last name, my address, my date of birth, my home address, and my license plate number, but it also had MY FREAKING SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER ON IT! This seems like a massive privacy violation, not to mention incredibly stupid (and I think illegal) due to the HIGH RISK that anyone walking by could easily steal my identity or use the information for other ill purposes.

I saw online that a class action lawsuit was successful, ruling that police departments that put too much information on parking tickets are violating privacy law–and that case didn’t even involve a social security number! Has this happened to anyone else? Is it common/legal? Does anyone have advice of how I should proceed in reporting and possibly litigating this?

I’ve since learned about the federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act, which governs the disclosure of personal information gathered by the DMV and the recent (2012) 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said that police that put too much personal information on parking tickets are in violation of the Drivers Privacy Protection Act (and the case in question here didn’t even have social security numbers on the ticket), so it really does seem like a violation was committed. Oh, yeah, and I called the police station (that’s who gave me the ticket) and they were phenomenally unhelpful and basically just said I could come into the station and file a complaint.”

Ed. Note: When I first got a DC drivers license in ’97 we had our Social Security number printed on the card, later this was removed and replaced with a random number. Never heard of one on a parking ticket before.

Your Afternoon (illegal) Parking Problems Post

By Prince Of Petworth

photo 1
This was about 8:45 this morning.

“Dear PoPville,

How does one get MPD or DPW to enforce rush hour parking restrictions – in this case along the Mall? Sure, we’ve all been in the position of parking a few minutes before the restrictions end and waiting until 6:30 (or whatever time) to be safe. But some food and ice cream trucks have taken this to a new extreme, parking in the rush hour lanes on 7th street and elsewhere early in the morning (8am) and just waiting in their vehicles (or waiting in a car, saving the space) until parking becomes legal at 9:30. Cops seem uninterested in chasing them off. Meanwhile, traffic backs up because the lane isn’t available for use.”

Wait, Was Resident Only Parking (outside of stadium/special zones) a Mistake?

By Prince Of Petworth

resident_only_parking_Dc

“Dear PoPville,

Have you heard anything about the status of the Resident Only parking program, where residents on their block can designate one side of the block as “residents only” (i.e., no free 2-hour parking like the normal zoned parking). The link for the petition on the DDOT website appears to be dead (See link at the bottom of the page labeled “Resident Only Form”.) I just called DDOT and they said that the resident only program has been suspended until they can go through the rulemaking process. As I understood it the program was apparently incorrectly implemented, and was supposed to be for special zones like around the ballpark. But it somehow became a citywide thing where any neighborhood could petition the city for resident only parking. So it sounds like for now there won’t be any more of those red and white signs going up. They did say that this does not affect the other programs where neighbors can petition to have zoned parking hours extended.”

No Parking or Standing Anytime? Not Exactly

By Prince Of Petworth

14110617949_8b7ceef8c0_z

“Dear PoPville,

There is a car parked down the street from me and maybe I’m crazy, but it looks like it is clearly illegally parked. But it hasn’t been ticketed for days. So I call 311, because I’m that kind of jerk, and explain the situation. The woman on the phone was extremely helpful and took all the info and said parking enforcement would be out tonight. A few hours later she calls me back to say the parking enforcement officer said that since the car had a Zone 3 sticker it was ok to park there, even though the signs clearly state Zone 3 parking on one side, and no standing or parking on the other. I’ve never heard of this. I’ve wasted time looking for spots all these years when I could have parked illegally?

This is the response I got my my councilmember:

“I am following up with a response from DPW Parking regarding the vehicle in question (Grey BMW w/ DC Tags) being parked in the 3500 blk Alton Pl. N.W. The vehicle is displaying a VALID residential parking permit that expires April 26, 2016. The vehicle can’t be ticketed due to the guidelines of the “Moratorium” (In effect 24hrs. a day)…………..Vehicles displaying valid residential parking permits are allowed to park in “No Standing Anytime, No Parking Anytime, 25ft or more from the intersection. So yes the space is legal as long as the registration parking permit is valid and properly displayed.”

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