Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

department of traffic obstruction

On the days I drive to work, one of my biggest frustrations is the people who park along the streets in zones that have been designated “no parking” during the rush hour periods. Worst for me are the right lane of 20th Street between E and F streets in the morning, and 19th Street between C Street and Constitution Avenue in the evening. I’ll be in the right lane in anticipation of making a right turn at the intersection, only to have to abruptly stop and work my way into the lane to the left when I realize that some yahoo has left his (or her; equal opportunities for boneheaded parking here) car parked at the meter long past the permissible hour, thereby disrupting the flow of traffic (and, I’d wager, increasing the odds of accidents as well).

Adding to the frustration: Even though rush hour started two hours ago, said yahoo’s windshield is parking ticket-free.

According to a story in Sunday’s Washington Post, that disruption is more than just a minor annoyance. The result is increased gridlock and up to a 40 percent reduction in traffic capacity on the effected road as people from one lane try to cram their way into another. (“Double-Parkers Blamed for Tie-Ups” - 11/23/03)

In fact, the impact of an illegally parked vehicle goes beyond the lane it blocks. That’s because the adjacent lanes must accommodate the extra traffic squeezing past the parked vehicle.

The forced merging can reduce the capacity of the adjacent lane by up to 30 percent and cut the average speed by up to half, said Hani S. Mahmassani, director of the Maryland Transportation Initiative, a University of Maryland institute that studies transportation problems. The impacts grow more severe if the illegally parked car backs up traffic into an intersection because the resulting “spill-back effect” can create gridlock, he said.

“Experts” quoted in the WP story criticized DC city government for lax enforcement of traffic laws, failing to ticket or tow offending vehicles.

So far, the District has done little to fix the problem. Two years ago, the city spent $2 million on 25 tow trucks for 24-hour parking enforcement. However, half of them sit idle at any one time because the city didn’t budget enough for drivers.

The District also tripled the number of parking enforcement officers in the past two years, but one-fifth of the positions are vacant, city officials said.

Meanwhile, some delivery company operators whose trucks get caught double-parking said police and parking enforcement officers routinely look the other way or simply ask them to move along rather than tow or ticket. Some said they budget up to $250,000 annually for parking tickets in the District, because they consider it a cost of doing business. They complain that the city has allowed many of its alleys to be developed, leaving entire blocks with no off-street parking…

Another challenge: Towing an illegally parked car to the Addison Road impoundment lot can take one tow truck an hour during morning and evening peak, hardly an efficient use of the truck. There’s little extra room on city streets to tow them to a legal spot…

“I’d be willing to try zero tolerance,” [city public works director Leslie] Hotaling said, “until we tow the first congressman’s or senator’s car who double-parked to run into a Starbucks.”

Perhaps ironically, at the tail end of this morning’s rush hour, I saw a DC Parking Enforcement van parked in a “No Parking/Stopping/Standing” zone outside my office on 20th Street.