Washington Gives $1.3M in Parking Fines During Snowstorm

[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.

[calvinbhai]

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

http://dcist.com/2016/01/mayor_bowser_is_voiding_tickets_iss...

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

[dustcoin]

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

DC did in this case. The city warned about the emergency routes ahead of time, offered free parking at metro stations, and worked with private garages to offer $1/day parking.

[mikeash]

Great. What's the point of snow emergency routes if you can just park there during a storm with no consequences?

Many local garages were either free or $1/day for the storm. There was no excuse to leave cars parked on these routes.

[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?

[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.

[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/

And furthermore, thousands of tickets will be forgiven:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-to-forgi...

[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.

[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...

[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.

[thrownaway2424]

Drivers angered at being called out on their selfish behavior.

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