Comments on: Dear PoP – Snow Emergency Parking Tickets

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:02:32 +0000

Yeah I think people on this thread need to chill the fuck out. The guy didn’t know it was a snow emergency lane. So big deal. He didn’t know. All this talk about complete doom for police/fire vehicles is laughable. Chill out people.

By: average citizen

average citizen — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:55:40 +0000

This is probably the most reasonable post I’ve read in this thread. The snow emergency declarations are ridiculous, particularly the second one where no snow even fell. A shit load of so-called snow emergency streets never even saw a single tow truck during the entire storm, but the city had these cars ticketed anyway for $250 a pop. Why not just ticket only those cars you have to tow because you are actually creating a snow emergency route? A lot of residents had no idea a snow emergency was even declared. You all claim that residents should have known a long time beforehand there was going to be lots of snow, well then the city should have known the same, and if so they should have made it amply clear there was going to be a snow emergency. News flash kids, not everyone watches the shitty local news. The city could have easily put up digital signs on major roads stating an upcoming snow emergency. Frankly, I’m easily siding with the original poster of this thread.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:27:19 +0000

I was hit with a Snow Emergency ticket in DC the first Friday night of the big snow. My problem with this is I’m a Virginia resident and ALL signs were CAKED with snow. I cleared and checked 3 signs to see if it was a Snow Emergency Route. None said anything about it. Later I learned where the sign was. It is higher than any other parking sign on the block. I would not have been able to reach it anyway. If they are going to spend the time to enforce and tow, I believe they should put in the effort to clear the sign on the block they are enforcing. I contested the ticket and will have to wait up to 6 months for a decision. The language in the Ticket Contesting form listed “Obscurred sign” as a valid argument. Hopefully they consider this. My biggest obstacle is that I didn’t take any pictures of the signs that night. I didn’t have a camera, anyway.

By: drew

drew — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:04:30 +0000

You are my hero. I parked on M street between 12th and 13th NW because the signage was poor and located way down the street and also, totally a residential street that didn’t make sense as an emergency route. They gave me a ticket but I’m contesting because like you say, it isn’t listed with the official snow routes.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:52:45 +0000

I am from out of town and was visiting the weekend of the snow storm. I also parked on 9th and was unaware of the snow emergency. I recieved a $250 ticket sat because of the snow emergency (which I can now understand after reading these posts) but I did not leave until Monday and recieved ANOTHER $250 ticket Monday. So on my car waiting for me were $500 worth of tickets! I was completely unaware there was a snow emergency Monday, as the road was entirely clear. I do not live in the area so will have to dispute the ticket(s) via mail. $500 is just ridiculous for a parking violation. Any suggestions? mfe109@yahoo.com

By: a2003

a2003 — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:11:07 +0000

If the city owns the street then they should pay their own damn taxes for the streets. Don’t collect money from the citizens, they don’t own the street.

By: Cyndia

Cyndia — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:19:18 +0000

Same thing happened to me, Greg. I parked on Connecticut Ave at 7pm on Monday, Feb 16th and recieved a $250 ticket. I knew that DC lifted its snow emergency ban on Saturday at 5pm, and since it barely snowed on Monday, I never dreamed they would have reinstated the ban. I even watched the news on Sunday evening. Apparently, they reinstated the ban after 8pm on Sunday.

By: Greg Jones

Greg Jones — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:39:39 +0000

I just had a similar experience yesterday, Monday, Feb 16th. Apparently, a new snow emergency was declared Monday morning in anticipation of the expected snow fall in the afternoon. It did snow for about 1-1.5 hours, however, it did not stick. I parked on Rhode Island Ave, where there were several other cars at 7PM and received a $250 ticket. Not sure what to think as there didn’t seem to be an emergency. I would’ve checked to see if others received a ticket, but I didn’t notice the ticket until this morning when I was back at home in the U street area.

By: Aman

Aman — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:26:36 +0000

Let’s get together & fight this tickets. I have seen over 50 cars which got the same ticket. I would accept the ticket if they were going to do any work on the street but they were not. Email me @ aaberhane@yahoo.com

By: Aman

Aman — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:20:18 +0000

I got one at 9 st too @12:30 am & I did not see a sign for it. Even if I had seen the sign I did not think the emergency was still in effect. What I don’t get is they lift the emergency the same day after they gave 100s of tickets and the street looks the same. It seems to me that they are just trying to capitalize with the situation. I think we all need to get together and contest the tickets