
Washington Gives $1.3M in Parking Fines During Snowstorm - daj40
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/us/washington-gives-1-3-million-in-parking-fines-during-snowstorm.html
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Bedon292
The snow emergency was announced on Thursday a full day before the snow
arrived. The emergency then went into effect Friday morning and the snow did
not start until around lunch time, several hours later. There was not a single
flake of snow in the first couple hours when most of the tickets were issues.
People who are saying they got tickets for being 'snowed in' are blatantly
misrepresenting what happened. They were parked illegally before the snow even
fell, and had plenty of warning.

Additionally, as others have said, parking was FREE at metro station garages
around the area through Tuesday. And many area garages were also offering free
or $1 parking. There is absolutely no excuse for being parked on the snow
emergency routes.

~~~
rsp1984
Maybe consider that many people just can't act that fast. Some may not have
even been in town. The average time from when people heard about the
announcement until the first snow was falling was probably just about a couple
of hours.

I would also assume that the free or $1 garage parking was full just a couple
hours after the announcement.

~~~
mikeash
Why would you go out of town in the middle of winter and leave your car parked
on a snow emergency route?

You don't get to set up problems for yourself, then complain when those self-
created problems have consequences.

I don't understand why so many are eager to defend these people. If you can't
move your car quickly, don't park it in a place where you might need to move
it quickly. If you negligently leave your car on a major road during a
blizzard, don't be shocked to find that your car has been dug out courtesy of
city parking enforcement.

~~~
BostonEnginerd
Some of us do travel for a living and can be out of town for weeks on end. It
does happen -- and where you're parked is an afterthought. You don't always
get to pick which street you park on.

~~~
mikeash
Really, you just can't be bothered to think about whether your parking spot is
a wise location to leave your car for several weeks? And further, that you
can't even choose not to park on a snow emergency route?

Your car is probably the first or second most expensive thing you own. Take
ten seconds to read the signs governing the legalities of where you store it.
If you screw they up (it happens to all of us) then own the screwup.

~~~
BostonEnginerd
I've lived in places where you don't have a lot of choice in the matter. I do
make an effort to not park on the emergency route in my town. On the side
streets, they have alternate side parking. Every week, you have to move your
car.

I can go on a one week trip which will turn into a three week one. It's just
the nature of the job - the customer's needs come first. They're running
billion dollar manufacturing facilities and all the equipment has to keep
running.

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calvinbhai
All tickets (for parking on snow emergency routes) have been voided

[http://dcist.com/2016/01/mayor_bowser_is_voiding_tickets_iss...](http://dcist.com/2016/01/mayor_bowser_is_voiding_tickets_iss.php)

During snow emergencies, cities should work with parking garages to make
overnight parking for cars, free. It'll solve a lot of problems.

If cars are not removed past the emergency, ticket revenue can be shared with
the garage

~~~
thrownaway2424
That's generous. Do you also think the city should "work with" hotels to
provide free housing for people during snow storms, or is your outpouring
reserved only for automobiles?

~~~
jsmeaton
If they declared your house was in an emergency route and you had to move for
a few days then yes.

~~~
restalis
In your reasoning you do take into account the houses being immobile and
automobiles - well... mobile?

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mikeash
And? Don't park in snow emergency routes during a historic blizzard.

~~~
mmanfrin

      The advisory said they issued 2,091 parking tickets in the
      first three hours of the mayor’s declaration.
    
      The tickets drew backlash from drivers who said they were 
      unable to dig out their cars. Others said they did not feel 
      comfortable driving in the snow, some because their cars 
      were not properly equipped for it.
    

3 hours after the declaration, and for cars that _could not reasonably be
moved_ because of said emergency. Have some fucking empathy.

~~~
mikeash
We knew the storm was coming days before. Snow emergency routes are posted and
publicly known. People's cars couldn't be stuck there due to the snow unless
they failed to move their cars before the storm like they were required to do.
This failure makes it much harder to clear important roads and impedes
emergency services. Ticketing these people seems entirely appropriate to me.

~~~
ChuckMcM
This is what my friends in DC feel as well. There was a _lot_ of lead up to
the storm, and well before it hit you could have moved your car elsewhere. But
people were "betting on the come" as they say in Craps and they were parking
there assuming that either a) they would be able to move if it snowed, and b)
if it snowed so much that they couldn't move well the city would have bigger
problems than ticketing them.

If the law is amended, it should be amended to read "It is illegal to park on
a snow emergency route at time time during and 24hours before a snow
emergency. A snow emergency exists when the city declares it." Then the city
could announce the emergency _before the snow started_ , and start warning
people, and then start ticketing people, and ideally by the time the snow hit
there would be few if any cars in the emergency snow lanes.

~~~
Bedon292
The emergency did go into effect before the snow actually fell. Not 24 hours
before, but most of the ticketing and towing was right before or immediately
after the snow started falling.

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ihsw
This is Washington DC (absolutely egregious omission by NYTimes, IMO), and not
only were the roads blanketed with snow but exceedingly slippery a day
earlier.

See here for anecdotal reports regarding the city's _absurd_ winter road
strategy:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/washingtondc/comments/41xgqe/lmfao/](https://www.reddit.com/r/washingtondc/comments/41xgqe/lmfao/)

And furthermore, thousands of tickets will be forgiven:

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-to-
forgi...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-to-forgive-
thousands-of-parking-tickets-issued-during-
snowstorm/2016/01/28/a4e342de-c5db-11e5-a4aa-f25866ba0dc6_story.html)

~~~
maxerickson
I dunno, not having much of a plan seems like an appropriate measure for
storms that only happen every 5 years or so.

Which sounds glib, but it takes a lot of equipment to be able to rapidly deal
with snow on a lot of roads, equipment that would be sitting around rusting a
lot of the time.

~~~
mikeash
This is more like a 25-year or 50-year event, I'd say. I think this was the #2
or #3 biggest blizzard recorded here. It's ok for something like that to screw
things up for a few days.

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gleenn
Washington only charges $20 per day of impound? My motorcycle spent a 3 days
in impound because someone moved in and needed moving-truck street space
costing me over $600 with a few hundred for the ticket and then something
closer to $100 a day for impound. Stupid San Francisco. Parking at only $1 is
also incredible.

~~~
Bedon292
How is this a thing? Were there posted signs that the moving truck was coming?
Why did they not just have them look up the license plate and ask you to move?
So many better solutions...

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barney54
DC is great at giving tickets, but as of yesterday main roads in DC still
weren't completely cleared of snow. They are inept at the stuff that counts.

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thrownaway2424
Drivers angered at being called out on their selfish behavior.

In other breaking news, water confirmed to be still wet.

