parking

Dear PoPville – How Much Notice is Required before posting an Emergency No Parking sign?

By Prince Of Petworth

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“Dear PoPville,

Last night I luckily walked by my car parked on 15th St NW and saw that an Emergency No Parking sign that had been posted requiring me to move my car today. My car is in a non-street sweeping zone, so I planned to leave it there for weeks and check periodically for no parking signs (about weekly) since it’s a few blocks from where I live. I had just walked by on Saturday night and there were no signs.

But this sign showed up at most 3 days before (with one day being a sunday). I know there have been posts about these signs before, but is there a requirement for how far in advance No Parking signs must be posted? Are people really required to check their car’s location every 2-3 days for such signs? And thus never allowed to leave it on the street if out of town for a few days for personal or business reasons, home sick, godforbid in the hospital, or a range of other reasons? In this case it’s the city doing work on 15th street putting up the sign with very little notice.”

From DDOT:

“District law requires that signs be posted 24 hours in advance at metered spaces and 72 hours in advance at non-metered spaces.”

Do you think that’s a reasonable amount of time?

Update on Visitor Parking Pass Program – Current Pass Will Remain Valid Through December

By Prince Of Petworth

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From DDOT:

“The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced the following updates regarding the Visitor Parking Pass (VPP) Program:

· The current 2012/2013 VPP will remain valid through December 2013.

· Residents that do not have a VPP may obtain a parking pass at a police station or substation in the ward in which they reside.

The 2013/2014 VPP will be made available free of charge and only one pass will be provided per household.

About the Parking Pass Program

The VPP program is designed to allow guests of District residents to park for more than two hours on 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.

Please Note:

District residents cannot use a VPP in lieu of registering their vehicles with the District Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). If residents who receive a pass have guests that stay overnight frequently, then the visitor should register their vehicle through the Registration of Out of State Automobile (ROSA) program once a Warning Citation is issued by DPW parking enforcement personnel.”

Dear PoPville – Where Do the Valets Park the Cars?

By Prince Of Petworth

Le Diplomat Parking

“Dear PoPville,

Where is Le Diplomat parking all of the cars they valet? The can’t even find reasonable parking for their delivery trucks and frequently block the driveway behind the restaurant (see Pic above).

I’ve noticed a large decrease in parking in the neighborhood since they have opened. What are the rules for valet companies? Do they need to have designated parking to run a valet stand or is it typical for them to use on street parking?

On a side note (and I can’t prove it) I’ve seen an increase in orange cones in parking spaces in the evening where no construction or maintenance is being performed (coincidence?).”

Dear PoPville – What’s Going on with the Visitor Parking Program Renewals

By Prince Of Petworth

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“Dear PoPville,

Do you have any further info on the new procedures for getting a visitor parking permit for the upcoming year?

I’ve done a bit of searching online and haven’t come up with anything…but Sept 30 is rapidly approaching.”

DDOT says they’ll soon be releasing lots more info soon but that they “will NOT be ticketed during the application phase of the program through October 30th.”

“

DDOT issues new permits for 84 on-street parking spaces for carshare providers

By Prince Of Petworth

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From DDOT:

“The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) issued new permits for the 84 on-street parking spaces for carshare providers. The spaces have been dedicated since 2005 and are recognizable by their distinctive orange poles. The new allocation includes Zipcar, a longstanding partner in carsharing in the District, and Enterprise CarShare, a new entrant into the regional carsharing market.

As a result of the reallocation of spaces, vehicles will be shifting their “home” location, and new noticeable pavement markings will be used to highlight the spaces. These 84 spaces are reserved only for carshare vehicles, at all times, and are allocated for one of the two companies. Non-carshare vehicles should not park in the spaces at any time and are subject to a $100 fine and towing.”

You can see where the spaces are below:

carshare_parking_map

Dear PoPville – Construction Containers Taking Up Parking Spots While No Construction Takes Place

By Prince Of Petworth

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Photo by PoPville flickr user thisisbossi

“Dear PoPville,

I live across the street from a house that has been undergoing construction. I haven’t seen anyone doing work on the house for over a month, but the large construction trash bin remains, taking up multiple parking spaces, being an eyesore, and attracting random dumping of large items. Any advice on how to handle? I can’t see a company name on the bin, and I haven’t seen any contractors in a while.”

Dear PoPville – “DC Parking Enforcement Needs a Ticket”

By Prince Of Petworth

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“Dear PoPville,

The attached picture is of a DC Parking Enforcement vehicle parked in one of the 4 parking spots zoned for 15 minute drop off in front of the Department of Energy Daycare facility. No officer in the car, no officer anywhere to be seen- 8:55 am, the height of the drop-off rush. Now, I wouldn’t be quite so incensed by this if the DC Parking staff did anything to make the parents’ drop-off easier in general.

However, in the two years that I have been taking my kid to this facility, I have never seen a Parking Officer anywhere in the vicinity of this zone during the peak drop-off and pick up times for daycare. This results in, on average, 4 mornings a week having at least one and sometime as many as three of the spots occupied by various jackasses who can’t read signs and are doing anything but dropping off kids. I’ve seen people taking naps, a 2 seater Ferrari, and more of those damn car-share cars than I can count. This results in harried parents lining up 5 cars deep waiting for a spot to open up-often as long as 20 minutes. I have never once seen a ticket on any of these cars.

However, Parking Enforcement manages to somehow nail parents who forget to pay the meter. Why we need to pay the meter when we have parking permits for those spaces is another mystery. It’s gotten so bad that I have taken to simply double parking beside whatever moron is illegally parked with my hazards on and blocking them in while I run my kid inside. This hasn’t given me a whole lot of satisfaction as usually whoever is parked there is off doing whatever idiots do and I am out of there in 3 minutes flat.

If this hadn’t been a particularly unusual morning with multiple open spots, I would have most certainly blocked that Parking Enforcement car in. They could do such a service at this location by simply being around the area during peak hours and moving folks along. It would work out great for them- they could patrol the entire L’Enfant area and hand out dozens of tickets in all the spaces around that area while swinging by the reserved spots every 10 minutes or so to keep the area clear for parents. I have long given up expecting logic and public service from the DC government.”

Visitor Parking Passes Expire Sept. 30th, You’ll Need to Apply for a New One – “in the coming weeks DDOT will be providing details on when and how” to do it

By Prince Of Petworth

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From DDOT:

“The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced that the Visitor Parking Pass (VPP) program will be available District wide to all Residential Parking Permit (RPP) eligible households and those in ANCs 1A, 1B and 1C.

The VPP program is designed to allow guests of District residents to park for more than two hours on RPP blocks.  To see the list of RPP designated street blocks visit http://ddotfiles.com/db/RPP/rpp.php.

The current pass expires September 30, 2013 and unlike previous years DDOT is no longer automatically mailing the pass to residents.  Instead, residents will be required to apply for the pass through a simplified, user-friendly method made available through DDOT.  In the coming weeks DDOT will be providing details on when and how residents will be able to apply for a VPP.

The new pass will be provided free of charge and will be valid for one-year; effective October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014.  The VPP is only valid during the hours of RPP enforcement and only one pass will be available per household or specified unit. VPP remains valid only in the same ANC boundary as the residence.

Please Note: District residents cannot use a VPP in lieu of registering their vehicles with the District Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).  If residents who receive a pass have guests that stay overnight regularly, then the visitor must register their vehicle through the Registration of Out of State Automobile (ROSA) program once a Warning Citation is issued by DPW parking enforcement personnel. Residents will also continue to be able to obtain Temporary Parking Passes from Metropolitan Police Department stations for eligible vehicles.”

Dear PoP – Handicap Parking Discount?

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoP:

I work in a large building downtown, between George Washington University, a park and several Federal government buildings. Due to medical appointments about twice a month I drive to work and pay to park at parking meters, moving my car several times a day to avoid being ticketed.

It used to be quite competitive finding a space until DC raised its hourly meter rate to $2 an hour. After that most people seemed to give up on the street parking and instead parked in garages or took Metro which I guess was the point of it. However, in the past few months more and more of the parking places are taken up by those with handicap placards and most of them are from Virgina and Maryland. DC allows 4 hours of free parking at a meter if you have a handicap placard so if these people move their cars once (and I rarely see the parking control officers monitor this) they get free parking for 8 hours valued at $16!

At lunch today I did an informal survey and noticed about 75% of the cars parked on my block were getting free on-street parking at meters. Has anyone else noticed this in other areas? Is it fair that DC allows out-of-state commuters this free parking benefit if they have a handicap placard? From my observation most drivers seem to be heading across the park to Federal office buildings, so should the Feds be paying DC to accommodate the parking needs of their handicapped employees?”

I think the bigger questions is whether or not the people are really handicapped. I remember the Post had a story (and a number of follow up stories) about this after a women complained that her car was towed but she said it had a handicap placard then it turned out the placard was for her husband (who wasn’t there).

But to the original question – do you think there should be a discount for handicap parking?

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