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The City of Somerville’s snow emergency will end, and normal parking rules will go back into effect, tonight at 9 p.m., Friday, Feb. 5. Here’s some important information to help you avoid being ticketed and to be a good neighbor.
CARS IN LOTS: Residents parked in municipal or school lots during the snow emergency normally have a two-hour window to move their vehicles after the end of an emergency, but due to the late hour, you may remain in the lots until 8 a.m. Saturday. Cars still parked in City lots at after 8 a.m. may be subject to ticketing and towing to allow crews to plow all lots.
PERMIT VISIBILITY: Please note that by 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6 (24 hours after the end of the snow emergency), your residential or visitor parking permit must be visible (cleared of snow), or the vehicle may be ticketed for a Permit Parking Violation.
SIDEWALK SHOVELING: Please also remember to clear snow from your sidewalks within 6 daylight hours of the end of snowfall (by 1 p.m. Saturday). A 36-inch-wide path is required by ordinance to allow wheelchair passage. If you are a senior or are otherwise physically unable to shovel, please call the Council on Aging during normal business hours to sign up in advance for assistance during the NEXT storm. For assistance immediately, the independent website www.snowcrew.org. may be able to match you with a volunteer.
HOW TO HELP: If you are able, please consider assisting neighbors who may need help with shoveling.
THANK YOU & MORE INFO: We appreciate your patience and cooperation during this storm. For more information on post-snow policies, please visit www.somervillema.gov/snow.
For more information, please dial 311 (627-666-3311 from outside Somerville) or visit the City’s website, www.somervillema.gov.
~City of Somerville
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Even side of Greene Street could not be plowed close to the curb because of parked cars and EZ Haul container. It will be dangerous to have multiple side parking since there will not be enough clearance to allow cars to pass.
Cars should be towed and plow should remove snow closer to curbside.
If you look carefully, you’ll notice that they never plow close to the curb. They always leave at least 2-3 feet buffer – or more, as in the first bigger snow we received last year. The only reason cars were able to get closer than that after this last snow is that it was so light (a lot of it melted on the warm pavement, as predicted) that cars could just drive / park on the berms with ease. Frankly, your street would have been better off without a parking ban.
The only advantage to the present system of declaring snow “emergencies” with every snowfall is that the folks who return with cars don’t have to shovel out spots for their cars on one side of the street. It also results in less snow in the actual roadway, in that they get to push it all to where the cars need to park. Otherwise it forces widespread pinching of street widths by cars that would have otherwise remained close to the curb.
Leaving the cars alone (ie know snow “emergency”) requires folks on both sides of the street to shovel out cars and results in sloppier streets (like Cambridge), but is ultimately safer in that the cars remain closer to the curb. Easier for a firetruck to drive over a one foot snow bank than a row of cars that are forced to park too far into the street.
Also, several years ago Somerville got rid of its heavier plows that were better able to muscle large amounts of snow around. You could see its impact pretty clearly during last years big snows. Bad initial plowing made things worse as the later snow piled up.
Genie, you have hit on the problem this city has with plowing. When the idea of a snow emergency parking ban was initiated we were told it was to insure that the plows could plow the street to the curb. And that probably happened for awhile. Then they reverted to plowing just the middle of the street. The snow emergency has become just another money grab via tickets and towing. And by the way if you listened to last nights’ announcement that the snow emergency was ending you heard the instructions at the end to make sure your permit was visible as permit parking would be enforced. How many of you went out every hour or two during the night to make sure your permit was visible? How many were ticketed overnight for permit not visible?