561 replies to this topic

[Cotuit]

The city also began introducing "pay-and-display" kiosks this year, which allow multiple cars to pay for parking at a single machine (although some motorists, with the absence of traditional meters, might not realize they’re still expected to pay for parking).

Yeah, has anyone seen the kiosk on Weybosset, no? Didn't think so. I remember when these went in in New York City. There was uniform signage installed in many areas of the street, explaining the kiosks and how to use them. Everything was branded so that you could recognize the system throughout the city. In Providence it seems they have just shoved kiosks into any random corner and that's the end of it.

[Liamlunchtray]

Any recent updates on Overnight parking? I keep hearing about "pilot programs" but I never hear any solid dates or areas.

[Frankie811]

Liamlunchtray, on Oct 11 2005, 12:15 PM, said:

Any recent updates on Overnight parking? I keep hearing about "pilot programs" but I never hear any solid dates or areas.

Try to be as patient as a buzzard on a slow day in Death Valley on this one.  

[vindogg22]

Just wondering if someone could find me a link to the actual law banning overnight parking in Providence.  I have scoured the code of ordinances and the city charter and found only a listing of fines, not the actual wording and definition of the ordinance.  Thanks for the help, I am gonna fight until my eyes bleed......or until I go broke from paying parking tickets and have to move from the city I love.

[lld]

vindogg22, on Dec 12 2005, 05:46 PM, said:

Just wondering if someone could find me a link to the actual law banning overnight parking in Providence.  I have scoured the code of ordinances and the city charter and found only a listing of fines, not the actual wording and definition of the ordinance.  Thanks for the help, I am gonna fight until my eyes bleed......or until I go broke from paying parking tickets and have to move from the city I love.

it's a traffic regulation, promulgated by the traffic engineer -- not an ordinance

[chaz200]

lld, on Dec 14 2005, 01:02 AM, said:

it's a traffic regulation, promulgated by the traffic engineer -- not an ordinance

This is the listing for the traffic engineer:

Traffic Engineering
60 Ernest St. 02905
Phone: (401) 781-4044 or 421-7740 ext.319, 320

According to Article IX 2-159 printed copies of the regulations are to be made available to the public.  I don't know if they actually have them or not but that can be a start.

[LMWW]

Okay, I'm not saying this to be provocative, but I have had one fairly consistent observation about the overnight parking ban.

I used to live on the East Side/Wayland Square.  Our neighbor would park overnight on a side street (we were on a corner) and NEVER get ticketed.  On occasion, we would forget that we left our car in the street, and would wake up to find no ticket on our car.

Well, we moved to the West Side this past summer. It is without fail that if someone leaves their car on the street overnight, they will get a ticket.  When I drive to work in the morning, I see plenty of orange slips of paper flopping in the wind....

So has anyone else noticed this?  I feel like there's an inconsistency in the rate of enforcement of the overnight ban across the different neighborhoods. And I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but there is a noticeable (albeit shrinking) difference in socioeconomics between these two parts of town.

(And I'm not bitter - I have actually never received one of these tickets!)

[brick]

LMWW, on Dec 14 2005, 05:23 PM, said:

So has anyone else noticed this?  I feel like there's an inconsistency in the rate of enforcement of the overnight ban across the different neighborhoods. And I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but there is a noticeable (albeit shrinking) difference in socioeconomics between these two parts of town.

There is probably quite a large difference in the amount of police activity.

I don't think there is a concious effort at play, I just think there are more cops in that area.

[ruchele]

LMWW, on Dec 14 2005, 05:23 PM, said:

I feel like there's an inconsistency in the rate of enforcement of the overnight ban across the different neighborhoods. And I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but there is a noticeable (albeit shrinking) difference in socioeconomics between these two parts of town.

Other observers feel that MORE tickets are given out on the East Side for exactly the same reason- because residents with expensive real estate don't want students and riff-raff parking in the neighborhood.  Seems like perceptions of this are pretty subjective.

[runawayjim]

i'm just getting in on this discussion...

re: permit parking... it doesn't have to be teh same across the board.  on the east side and in other college areas (parts of elmhurst), require that the car be registered in providence before you can get a permit.  philly does that for certain neighborhoods.  a lot of the houses on the east side have lots/driveways, same goes for elmhurst (and by elmhurst, i'm talking about only the area surrounded by douglas ave to the east, smith to the south, eaton to the north, and river to the west.  that's where most of the off-campus housing for PC students is.  hell, you can even narrow it down to huxley instead of river.  on-campus students at any college would not be allowed to get a permit.  the other parts depend on the number of cars that park in actual driveways or paved lawns and how many cars people have.  limit guest passes to 2 per household like somerville.

to the guy who mentioned cops/firetrucks flying down oakland or pembroke... both these streets are wide enough to park on both sides and fit at least 1 vehicle down the middle.  i live in that area.  the streets that would have an issue are the ones on the east side.  but then here's my question... how do they do it during the day?  it's actually easier at night because there's fewer cars on the road.

re: enforcement... it would have to happen regularly across the city, not just in areas where there happens to be more police presence.  it's highly unfair that i am able to park on my street for a week straight (including overnight every night) and not get ticketed once, yet people in other neighborhoods will get ticketed every night.  that's just ridiculous.  i just happen to live in a neighborhood of mostly single family homes that are not rentals (my house is one of only a couple rentals on my street).

there should be no difference made between property owners and renters.  when it comes to this, renters are residents of the city, at lesat those of us who use it as our permanent address (those who don't should absolutely not have the same rights).

in neighborhoods where there's more space available, don't require permits (such as is done in philly).  i don't know how philly determined which neighborhoods/streets required permits (which require you to register your car in the city).  

and of course keep the more commercial areas limited to 1-4 hour parking.

there would just have to be more regulations... i think the ban allows the city government to be lazy.  just ban it, ticket everyone and then they don't have to make up regulations for street sweeping (which happens "once" a year, although i don't think it happened on my street at all) and snow removal.  another thought is limiting parking to 1 side of the street overnight.  and something that's importnat... "no parking here to corner" signs!  why are these non-existent here (at least on my street where people park right in front of stop signs or only 1 car length from them)?

[vindogg22]

chaz200, on Dec 14 2005, 03:50 PM, said:

This is the listing for the traffic engineer:

Traffic Engineering
60 Ernest St. 02905
Phone: (401) 781-4044 or 421-7740 ext.319, 320

According to Article IX 2-159 printed copies of the regulations are to be made available to the public.  I don't know if they actually have them or not but that can be a start.

Thanks so much chaz, I am going to  see if I can't get a copy of the regulation and see if any of us are getting ticketed unjustly.  I'll report back when I get a copy of the reg.

[urbie]

The overnight-parking ban was the one thing about Providence that really struck us as weird, when we came to scout the town last summer.  ("We" meaning the Mrs. and I, that is.)  I went to college in Worcester, and they had a parking ban, but it only applied to one side of the street, and only from November 1 to April 1, or something like that.  When I lived in Jamaica Plain, they had "resident" parking, by virtue of residents staking out their parking spaces with chairs and other solid objects (rumor had it that if you moved someone's chairs and parked in their space, you'd find your tires slashed in the morning, but I never tried it).  A total ban on overnight parking is overkill -- whose idea was that?

Urb

[CtownMikey]

another reason that we need a new generation in city hall.

[lld]

CtownMikey, on Dec 14 2005, 08:42 PM, said:

another reason that we need a new generation in city hall.

as of now, pilot program's scheduled to get off the ground in south prov by start of feb.  keeps getting pushed back, but looks like everything's in order now.  (and you may have noticed that the signs have started going up.)

low fee; prov registration required; have to be up-to-date on taxes/tickets; renters and prop owners are all eligible.

the phx article from a couple of months ago had it down pretty well.

[Recchia]

What happened to the "parking czar" that the city hired to come up with a solution to this?

[Cotuit]

CtownMikey, on Dec 14 2005, 09:42 PM, said:

another reason that we need a new generation in city hall.

You have to move to Providence first. Or are you looking to take Laffey's place.  

[DavidSegal]

The overnight parking pilot is finally finally starting.  There's going to be a meeting on the South Side this week, with the program getting underway in very early April.  I'll post the detailed info after the flyers go out to the neighborhood.

[jencoleslaw]

where is the pilot starting? just southside?

[DavidSegal]

jencoleslaw, on Mar 18 2006, 06:09 PM, said:

where is the pilot starting? just southside?

Yup, but you know who you gotta talk to if you want to rock West Broadway too.  (My hunch is it'd be pretty do-able.)

[jencoleslaw]

DavidSegal, on Mar 18 2006, 08:19 PM, said:

Yup, but you know who you gotta talk to if you want to rock West Broadway too.  (My hunch is it'd be pretty do-able.)

lemme see what i can do over heeya.  are there costs involved that you're finding on the southside program?