Hike in fines for snow parking violations endorsed
City officials brainstormed many ideas after last winter to get residents to follow snow parking guidelines, but at Monday's Board of Estimates meeting, they voted on the most reliable one -- hitting people in the pocketbook.
The city's financial committee voted unanimously to increase parking fines for violating snow parking rules to $60 per ticket, doubling the cost of tickets for those in the downtown Snow Emergency Zone and tripling the fines elsewhere. The ordinance change will go to the City Council for final approval on Sept. 2.
"Ideally by raising the fines, we'll get people to actually get that car off the street," said George Dreckmann, spokesman for the Streets Division. He added that the benefits of following snow parking rules for the city include more efficient and effective plowing, particularly for narrow streets that get narrower with increased snowfall and impede emergency vehicles, and that the fines would also be paired with increased towing for cars that are not moved.
Council members who had worked with the Streets Division on improving winter street conditions were quick to assure others, however, that fines are only the beginning of attempts to improve winter road conditions.
"We started off only raising fines, and that was unacceptable," said Ald. Satya Rhodes-Conway, citing early and more thorough notification of street parking rules, particularly during move-in time, as one major issue.
Despite a limited budget for public education, Dreckmann said fliers regarding the parking rules would be handed out with parking permit applications, on Madison Metro campus routes and with parking enforcement. The city is also working to consolidate its snow parking information to a single Web site and would purchase radio airtime to advertise the rules, he said.
"From the end of October until we run out of money, it's going to be what we talk about," he said.
The city will also try a new-media approach to notification by using text messages to alert city residents about snow emergencies and the need to move their cars. The alerts would use the same vendor that the University of Wisconsin-Madison uses for safety-related text alerts and would be an "opt-in" system, Dreckmann said.
Ald. Mike Verveer called the improved notification the "carrot" portion of the city's increased enforcement of winter parking, adding that he would like to see the expected $70,000 increase in parking fines from the ordinance change go toward increased notification.
Other "carrot" measures to help city residents get cars off the street include extending the time residents can park for free during a snow emergency in downtown parking ramps by two hours, from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., and plowing the parking lots of three central parks for additional free off-street parking.
One thing all members of the board could agree on was that the biggest challenge to improving plowing would be another winter similar to last year's record-breaking snowfall.
"If this passes ... hopefully we won't be put to the same kind of test," Rhodes-Conway said.
For a refresher on winter parking rules, visit the city's Web site at http://www.cityofmadison.com/streets/streetEmegencySnow.cfm.
File photo
The City Council will vote Sept. 2 on whether to increase fines for snow parking rule violations.
