“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.”
“
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:
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,
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.”
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/
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:
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?
Photo by PoPville flickr user Jess J
“Dear PoP,
My DC parking woes continue. (I was screwed by the City’s self-correcting parking meters.) The latest involves vehicle registration/zone stickers. See below for the story; I would be curious if this has happened to any of your other readers?
I recently moved. My new place is in a different “parking zone”, as defined by DC. As a result, I had to get a new Residential Parking Permit (“RPP”) from the DMV so that I could park on the street in front of my new place. (The RPP is the sticker all DC-registered cars have in the lower left hand corner of their windshields.) DC will only give you a new RPP if you bring in the old RPP.
This morning [Thurs.] I drove over to the DMV, parked directly in front of the DMV Service Center, removed the RPP from my windshield, and after thankfully only an hour wait, I exchanged my old RPP (and seven bucks) for a new one. I returned to my car to find a $100 parking ticket for failure to display the RPP, which apparently also serves as the vehicle’s registration tag. How unjust is that? The City requires you to turn in your old RPP to get a new one, but then tickets you for failure to display the RPP!”
Insane.
“Dear PoP,
Have you seen these signs in Dupont on Q St, NW across from Teaism, to pay to park? I didn’t think I had seem them on your blog. Just curious if anyone has used them?”
Hmm, we spoke about the pilot program but I think these just rolled out this week. It looks pretty easy. Has anyone given them a shot?
“Dear PoP,
There is a school near my apt in Logan, and the street signs states “No parking from 8-4pm on School Days.” What are the mandated schools days by the district? If the kids are out for the summer, would there be school days?”
Good question. Given Cardozo HS summer track hours I’m thinking those school days signs probably do apply during the summer as well. Anyone know for sure if school days apply during the summer?
“Dear PoP,
This is that corner of Holmead and Park Road, NW where you have to do a U-turn to get in to the Giant parking lot (in Columbia Heights). Illegal parkers at this location really irritate me, as they destroy visibility and impede travel.
Check out the plate on this gem. “At large Council Member” It was there for at least an hour as I shopped. Note the proximity to the stop sign, the fire hydrant and the clearly marked “no parking” sign. Why in all get out couldn’t he just park in the garage?!”
So which At Large Council Member drives an H3? Secondly, in the age of camera phones and the internet how can they possibly think this will not get out. So I am publishing these photos at 10:30am – how long until we get an apology? And if they were not ticketed I’d like them to donate the cost of a parking ticket to a Columbia Heights charity of their choice – sound fair?