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Drivers adjust to winter parking regulations
Sidewalks also a concern for some
By Stephanie Brien
“Apparently I was parked on a winter restricted street, but there were no signs.”
- Shannon Sunderlin
Andrea Mueller has already learned the hard truth behind winter in Milwaukee when she woke up Dec.5 to find her car missing from the spot she left it the night before.
Just four days after winter parking regulations went into effect, the city towed Mueller’s car, which was parked on a street that prohibits parking on one side between Dec.1 and March.1.
Mueller, a 22-year-old who attends Cardinal Stitch University, is one of thousands of people throughout Milwaukee learning to adapt to the winter parking regulations as snow continues to fall on the city.
The same night Mueller was towed, downtown resident Shannon Sunderlin, 23, said knew she had to read the signs carefully to avoid a ticket and purposely parked on a street without any notices. But in the morning her car was gone- towed to the city tow lot.
“Apparently I was parked on a winter restricted street, but there were no signs,” Sunderlin said with her boyfriend by her side, who had to take off work to drive her to pick up her car.
Sam McGovern-Rowen, 3rd District legislative assistant for Alderman Michael D’Amato, said the regulations are confusing, but there is very little that can be done about it.
He said at one point there were standardized parking regulations on the East Side, but residents later choose different regulations to better fit their individual neighborhood needs.
But as far as posting additional signs go, McGovern-Rowen said there would be “sign pollution” if all of the Milwaukee parking regulations were posted on every street. Instead, he said, drivers need to check out the city’s parking Web site to find out their street’s regulations. For instance, no parking is allowed on many through highways and bus routes from Dec. 1 to March 1, but most streets are not labeled.
While both Mueller and Sunderlin had to stand in line at the tow lot for more than an hour, Milwaukee tow lot manager, David Lawrence, said the number of tows does not increase significantly when it snows. He said, if anything, what increases is the number of cars towed due to accidents. For the first days of snow this season, Dec.1 to Dec. 5., there was a total of 28 accident-related tows, where it would normally be only 10 to 15, Lawrence said.
Meanwhile with every big snow, many residents wonder if it will be considered a snow emergency, an event that brings additional parking regulations into effect. Cecilia Gilberts, Milwaukee Department of Public Works spokeswoman, said a snow emergency is only called into effect for extreme emergencies where there is typically more than eight inches. She said the last emergency was January 2006, on Martin Luther King weekend. If a snow emergency is declared, there is no parking allowed on streets with signs that say “Snow Route Tow-Away Zone.”
On those days, the notice is widely publicized and parking is made available at certain Milwaukee Public School playgrounds throughout the city including Hartford Avenue School, 2227 E. Hartford Ave., and Maryland Avenue School, 2418 N. Maryland Ave.
In addition to concerns about winter parking, older residents are worried about sidewalk conditions. As an older member of the Cambridge Neighborhood Assocition on the East Side, Else Ankel said she finds it hard to get around on the streets when snow plows spray snow on the wheelchair-accessible curb ramps on street corners.
“Now we are not doing removal, we are doing snow ‘moval,’” Ankel said when talking about the movement of snow from the street to the curbs.
She said every time the plows blow the snow up, it gets shoveled back into the street and the whole process starts all over again.
McGovern-Rowen, working with D’Amato, said that city recognizes the problem and will soon be sending out Bobcats to help clear the sidewalks and curb ramps.
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