Rockville: Don't Park On The Street This Weekend
Feb 4, 2010 18:44 - 15 Comments
From the city of Rockville, in anticipation of Snowpocalypse 2:>
The City of Rockville is asking residents to help with snow removal efforts this weekend to help ensure that roads are cleared as efficiently as possible.Residents are asked to remove all vehicles from roads, including neighborhood streets. All vehicles should be parked in garages and driveways whenever possible.
Typically, those without garages or driveways are asked to park on a designated side of the street. However, because the predicted storm this weekend is for a significant amount of snow, the City is asking residents to remove all vehicles from the road.
Residents with garages or driveways should park all vehicles off the street. Those without a garage or driveway are asked to find alternate parking arrangements when possible.
During this weekend’s snowstorm, residents are reminded of the snow ordinance, which states:
- Snow must be removed from sidewalks, steps, driveways, parking spaces and similar paved areas for public use (including access ramps and curbs) within 48 hours after a snowfall of more than three inches.
- When clearing paved areas, provide a safe, unobstructed, passable path 36 inches wide.
- Ice must be removed or treated within 24 hours, and surfaces must be treated to prevent re-freezing.
The City snow ordinance is in place to ensure the safe passage of pedestrians, and to ensure they do not have to walk in the road.
For more information about the policy, contact the Public Works Department at 240-314-8566.
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“Those without a garage or driveway are asked to find alternate parking arrangements when possible,” it says. I parked my car in a city center parking garage to help snow clearing. A side benefit is it’ll make my life easier (-;)
Will the city actually be enforcing the Snow Emergency towing/ticketing this time around? On our street are a number of homes whose resident regularly, despite requests to the contrary, park ACROSS the street from each other, even on Snow Emergency days, effectively leaving room for only one small car at a time to pass after plowing a large storm.Rockville REALLY needs to step up to the plate at letting citizens know about this regulation.
Deb, My understanding is that the City is actually not planning to declare a “snow emergency,” as the most recent experience has shown this declaration and regulations that go with it to be confusing and difficult to disseminate in a reliable way. Instead, the City is asking citizens for voluntary common sense actions – like moving all cars off of the streets if at all possible.
Ken has an excellent idea. I discussed it with my friends who live in the apartments across the street from my house. We are thinking the City should declare free parking until Monday to encourage everyone to move their cars over to the garages and off the streets.
I was also wondering about free garage parking. And the Metro lots are free thru Monday at 10:30AM at least@Piotr: Exactly how is the City going about asking citizens? I’ve heard very little on radio or TV, and my guess is that less than 10% of those on my street would even think to check online.
Ken/Cindy – note that the garages are free on the weekend (starting Friday after 10:00 p.m.). Deb – a fair point indeed. The City has no great way of communicating quickly with its citizens other than through our own TV channel and also by directing all citizens to the City website where there is complete information. The City does get information out to radio and TV stations but this is likely to get lost in the white noise of all the other regional announcements.
The Town Center Parking Brochure states that overnight parking in the Town Center garages is prohibited. Has this restriction been waived due to the storm?
Thanks, George. I suspected something like that might apply, so I checked http://www.rockvillemd.gov/towncenter/parking, where I didn’t see that restriction. Well, I tried. Eso es la vida.
@Piotr, when I described the situation with my neighbor – who parked his cars ACROSS the street from each other on our side street, effectively choking the street and ensuring the street in front of my own house doesn’t get plowed, despite a specific request from me to PLEASE park BOTH cars across the street – to a friend, she said that her municipality put up temporary signs at the ends of streets a couple days in advance asking people to clear their streets or at least the [even/odd] sides of the streets. Yes, that’s a lot of signs; perhaps neighborhood associations could undertake this, even if it’s posterboard, cheap wooden stakes, staples and Sharpies to start with.Also, since a large percentage of Rockville speaks and reads English as a second language and as a result reads publications and watches TV in those languages, perhaps Rockville might consider accessing those avenues when trying to reach a larger percentage of the population. Comcast and Verizon/FiOS might help with this, especially since this was a State of Emergency in many jurisdictions before the first flake even fell.Many of the residents on my street probably don’t know there IS a Rockville City website or how to access it; knowing this now, could we perhaps consider this when reviewing how this storm was handled and looking ahead to the next similar situation? Whether it’s a direct mailing on postcards or flyers in a number of different languages stuck in doors, it’s clear that the current “let’s hope people get it” method isn’t cutting it, at least not here.
@George: Good point; that’s definitely a consideration Rockville might want to consider publicly waiving before the next one of these comes through. Signs around Town Center by the garages offering free parking from [Date] to [Date] could get some more cars off the streets while keeping Metro lots clear for plowing. That said, can any of the Parking Enforcement vehicle even get TO the garage? LOL
BTW, the County waived all parking fees for its garages during thew storm and sent out an alert asking residents to park in the structures instead of on the street.Not a bad idea for the City to do something similar.
@Deb Don’t laugh — I walked around RTS just after the snow stopped falling today and the only vehicles I saw driving around were trucks with plows … and Rockville parking enforcement!
A storm like this one really brings out the best in some of us. With animals at the store, I prepared for a 2 day stretch but when it got to 3, I was amazed at how many folks came by to see if we were all OK. We are. We had a few animals brought in to board when their heat was out and we emailed tips to our customers. Did you know that your pet snake will be fine in a bag under your jacket? Your body heat will keep it warm. Your birds and small animals that heat themselves do well with extra food and a well insulated space. Oh , and the next Science Cafe is on Global Warming….
Glad to see that the City garages are free for this storm (Tuesday – Round Two) and that it’s being announced ahead of time. Not sure if the word is out to too many folks, but I’ve mentioned it to a number of people who were glad to hear it.Happily, our East Rockville street has finally been plowed to the extent that it can be, after which my neighbor dug his cars out and RE-parked them right across from each other AGAIN, just in time for the next round.
This is one of majority of folks on our block who neither think to check the City website nor watch The Rockville Channel; better means of reaching more people before the next storm (hoping this is it for the Winter but not holding my breath! LOL) could only be a good thing.
Deb et al,Communications – it all boils down to that. Whether it’s getting the word out about snow emergency parking, City elections or a neighborhood National Night Out gathering. We, meaning Rockville, must find a way or a collection of “ways” to get the message out to as many residents, in as many languages as practical, as fast as possible. I suspect the answer is a combination of TRC11 + web sites + post cards + flyers under windshield wipers + temporary cardboard signs on poles. A process needs to be put in place and it need not be expensive as long as it is planned out and followed. A process that will somehow encompass even new residents and as many other residents as practical that are “off the grid”. Heck maybe we should consider an old town crier (volunteer?) on horseback or a 1950′s era sound truck. High school students and scouts could be part of this process and credit could be given towards community service or merit badges. Surely other communities have had this problem; did they find a solution? Let’s find out. This is 2010, Rockville can do this
I hit the wrong button and accidentally deleted the following comment by Nick D’Augustino:I just went door to door with copies of the city snow ordinance to give to the folks who leave their vehicles on the streets. I even volunteered to follow them to town center to drop off their cars if they wanted. I also told them to park their cars at Twinbrook Rec, since they are amazingly clear before any roads in Twinbrook!