Public Safety

The dark, high-risk hours (pre-sunrise) of winter increase pedestrian risk due to blind spots, narrow roads, and low visibility for commuters and students walking to school/transit.  

Emergency Vehicle access to streets after storm.

Reactive solution to declare Snow

Emergency when storm is active, requiring last-minute enforcement,   ignoring storm residual dangers of snow banks and winter hazards of black ice, and darkness which are created by parked cars during morning commute.  Promises future regulation for safety only when problems are discovered.

Development & Urban Congestion

New housing developments contain inadequate or no off-street parking.

Allows developers to build housing without off-street parking immediately shifting parking to neighborhood streets as residents with expensive or inconvenient choose free parking off-street.  Creates incentive for landlords and developers to not provide parking (which is expensive for them).  Promise of better regulation when overuse of the street parking occurs, too late as more need has been created. 

Parking Scarcity & Competition

Current parking management lacks the nuance and flexibility required to address resident hardship while

preventing non-residents (college students) and residents abandoning expensive or inconvenient off-street parking.

Quick Fix removing all restrictions on overnight parking, which will increase demand and lead to visible parking scarcity in many neighborhoods.  The repeal comes with a promise to create regulations once problems become widespread, by then it may be too late to reverse the impact.  Creating new regulations is a slow process done street-by-street typically 3-6 months per street.  The resulting rules are likely more restrictive than the winter ban since the problems will have grown larger and become more entrenched. 

Regulatory Control (Policy) 

Current parking management lacks the nuance and flexibility required to address resident hardship while protecting public safety and resource allocation.

Policy Vacuum: Repeals the core regulatory tool immediately. Promise of future regulations when discovered which require a slow, street-by-street re-regulation process (3-6 months per street). 

Are the promises realistic?

Future Regulation: A weak promise to fix problems if any occur. A slow, street-by-street re-regulation to solve problems created by the repeal.