No good deed goes unpunished

[dougo]

In front of my building, there's room for five cars to park comfortably between the two driveways on either side of the building. But, since there are no parking spots marked on the street, if one car parks in the wrong spot, then there's only room for four or sometimes three cars. This drives me nuts, especially at times like last Sunday night, when I came home to find four cars and a space in the middle that was about 7/8 the size of my car. Monday morning is street-cleaning on the other side of the street, so it was more crowded than usual, and I had to go down a few blocks to find a spot.

The spot I found was on a stretch between a street and a driveway that could comfortably fit three cars, but there was a car parked in such a way that only one other would fit behind it. So, I figured I would be nice and parked close to the street corner, so that when the other car moved, there would be room for two cars in front of me. But when I got back to my car on Tuesday afternoon, I found a parking ticket! (Two, actually, one for Monday afternoon and one for Tuesday afternoon. Since it was several blocks away, I couldn't see it from my house, or I would have noticed the ticket on Monday.) Tell me if you think this looks illegal:



The citations ($40 each) were for "within 20 ft. of intersection", which is a rule I was not aware of. Twenty feet seems like a lot; I figured if I was ahead of the part where the sidewalk starts to curve toward the corner, I'd be okay. Would it be unreasonable to expect them to mark the unavailable space somehow? I would also like to be able to get email (or text or robo-call) when I get a parking ticket, but I imagine that's a bit too high-tech for them.

Comments

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Would it be unreasonable to expect them to mark the unavailable space somehow?

Yes and no - the city has flat out stated they will not mark all of these locations - it is too cost prohibitive.

Read: it costs too much to do so, and cuts down on how many people they can nail for parking there.

It's intended to allow emergency vehicles proper access - at least one fire in the city had a delayed response due to vehicle too close to the intersection.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

This one is highly unlikely to be successfully contested because he was clearly (to me, anyway) too close to the intersection. It could be worth trying to get them to at least reduce it down to just one ticket, though. Two tickets in barely 24 hours is pretty unreasonable. If they were so concerned about the safety issue, they could have just knocked on your door after looking up who owned the car, after all. (Which I *have* seen them do, but maybe they only do that when it's a friend-of-the-cops or something. I've never heard about it happening to anyone I know, but I witnessed it on my street.)

I also strongly agree that the city should mark parking better. My street has a similar situation where there is room for four cars if everyone parks right. On one of my first days, I made the mistake of pulling up behind an already-badly-parked vehicle, such that once they left, it looked like I was taking two spots and a neighbor left a note on my car about it.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

In case it wasn't clear, there are no white lines that divide the parking area. Apparently that would be too expensive.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's a bike lane. Which I guess is something.

[crs.livejournal.com]

I heard there was a rash of problems with fire engines getting through crowded side streets last winter (two winters ago?) that caused them to step up enforcement of this law, at least a little.

[colubra.livejournal.com]

It seems strange to me that if it's a curb one COULD reasonably park at and shouldn't, the city doesn't paint it red.
They do that here, but we're also the only city in the US who's COUNTED their street parking spaces.

[lordjulius.livejournal.com]

You can't park within 20' of an intersection because it blocks the view of cars at that intersection from seeing other cars approaching the intersection. In order to be able to see them, you have to be IN the intersection, which is a recipe for disaster.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Apparently it's illegal all over Somerville to park within 20 feet of the corner (I thought it was 10), and I can't imagine them going around and painting all the corners red. Not too long ago, jbsegal and I took a tape measure and a Sharpie and marked the curbs near his house, after he had a conversation with the parking dept. in which they said they couldn't be bothered to mark legal parking parameters but still intended to ticket for violations thereof.

What wonderful place do you live in, where they've inventoried all the parking spaces?

[colubra.livejournal.com]

...wow, that's major civic fail going on, there. ignorance of 20' is no excuse, apparently.

And they just tallied all of 'em in San Francisco, in the interests of keeping abreast of how many they'd need to develop in the future. Apparently this is the only city they've done that in.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Wow. I was going to guess you live in a relatively-small midwestern city. All the parking spaces in SF must've been quite a feat!

[colubra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figured it was a big deal. doing a bit of browsing? Took 'em 18 months, apparently.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

20' is measured from the perpendicular curb — extend it out to a right angle. This has been discussed a number of times in the DS community and, as 42itous mentioned, we've measured Willow and Appleton. I keep meaning to go out and buy street-grade paint and either do the curb (in yellow) or a line out from the curb (in white).

And, for the record, it's 10' from either side of a hydrant, leaving a 20' space.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

It's actually illegal in the state to park that close to an intersection:
http://www.mass.gov/rmv/dmanual/chapter4.pdf

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

ignorance of 20' is no excuse, apparently

Especially not if you took your driver's test in MA - where it's part of chapter 4 of the RMV driver's manual.

[dkuznick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, just looking at that, it looks to me like you are parked illegally. Imagine there was a crosswalk marked on that side. You'd be parked in it.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that's not how the law works-- some crosswalks are more than 20' from a corner. But I guess it's a rule of thumb.

[dkuznick.livejournal.com]

Right, I meant more as a rule of thumb.