Washington Gives $1.3M in Parking Fines During Snowstorm • Hacker News Board

Re: Washington Gives $1.3M in Parking Fines During Snowstorm

#21

Post by Bedon292 » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 9:55 PM UTC

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.

Re: Washington Gives $1.3M in Parking Fines During Snowstorm

#22

Post by mikeash » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 9:59 PM UTC

cortesoft wrote: post #18

mikeash wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What about being unable to dig your car out?

Unless you were the victim of some seriously dedicated practical jokesters, this was unlikely to have been a problem before the storm hit.

Re: Washington Gives $1.3M in Parking Fines During Snowstorm

#23

Post by Bedon292 » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 9:59 PM UTC

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #13

calvinbhai wrote: post #6

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

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?

Actually, the city did work with area motels to house homeless in order to get them off the streets, since they were out of space in the homeless shelters.

Re: Washington Gives $1.3M in Parking Fines During Snowstorm

#24

Post by Bedon292 » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 10:01 PM UTC

gleenn wrote: post #19

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.

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...

Re: Washington Gives $1.3M in Parking Fines During Snowstorm

#25

Post by Bedon292 » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 10:05 PM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #20

mikeash wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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 th…

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.

Re: Washington Gives $1.3M in Parking Fines During Snowstorm

#26

Post by rsp1984 » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 10:23 PM UTC

Bedon292 wrote: post #21

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 wer…

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.

Re: Washington Gives $1.3M in Parking Fines During Snowstorm

#27

Post by mikeash » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 10:42 PM UTC

rsp1984 wrote: post #26

Bedon292 wrote: post #21

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 wer…

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.

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.

Re: Washington Gives $1.3M in Parking Fines During Snowstorm

#28

Post by mikeash » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 10:49 PM UTC

maxerickson wrote: post #15

ihsw wrote: post #5

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...

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.

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.

Re: Washington Gives $1.3M in Parking Fines During Snowstorm

#29

Post by CalRobert » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 11:01 PM UTC

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #13

calvinbhai wrote: post #6

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

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?

You're getting downvoted, but I think your point is a useful illustration of how we unwittingly worry more about places for cars to sleep than places for people to sleep. Everyone demands free, abundant, convenient parking, at the same time they vote to restrict construction of new housing. Then they complain about rents. People are weird.

Re: Washington Gives $1.3M in Parking Fines During Snowstorm

#30

Post by digbyloftus » Thu, Jan 28, 2016, 11:38 PM UTC

mmanfrin wrote: post #4

mikeash wrote: post #2

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

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.…

These fuckwits had advanced warning of the blizzard and still parked in a way to hinder emergency response capabilities. How you can paint them as innocent people who were fucked over is beyond me.