From a resident on the unit block of R Street NW:
I had a friend in town a few weeks ago and got the standard 2 week visitor pass (zone 5) from the police department. Unfortunately, she was given a ticket on the zone 5 resident permit only side of R Street, even those the 2 week visitor pass was properly displayed in her car. A few days later I asked the police department about it and they felt that the ticket was inappropriate stating that a visitor pass should grant all the rights residents. Apparently the parking enforcement officer disagreed. Whatever the case, it might be worth passing this on as a warning for those using 2 week visitor passes.
Here is a 06-15-2013 update:
The ticket was cancelled.
Here is a 06-15-2013 update:
The ticket was cancelled.
13 comments:
This happened to my boyfriend twice when I lived in Capital Hill. The people giving out parking tickets don't even look for the permits even though they're supposed to. If you write a letter and include a photocopy of the permit to deny the ticket they will revoke the ticket. It's just an annoying process especially because YOU did what you were supposed to do.
I would, instead of writing a letter, encourage a visit to the DMV - the process is generally not tedious and doesn't take too long, and - in my experience - the results are much more likely to be in your favor than a written letter. I know it is a pain, but will probably take an hour at most (especially if done off hours) and could get DMV to send a message to parking enforcement officers.
Here is a response from Bloomingdale's John Salatti:
Dear R Street resident,
Although the two suggestions made by neighbors for dealing with the ticket your friend received will work, we may have a quicker option. If you can email me a copy of the ticket, I can send it to the DDOT staff who oversee the parking restriction changes. They can often get a ticket voided quite quickly. John . Salatti at gmail.com.
I don't understand. The sign clearly says "Zone 5 Resident Permit Only." A "2 week visitor pass" is not a "Zone 5 Resident Permit" ergo you get a ticket if you park in that zone with a "2 week visitor pass." What am I missing?
Good question, Ted.
All visitor passes, whether the ones that DDOT mails everyone (new ones come in September) or the ones anyone can get from MPD, trump the basic zone parking restrictions. They don't trump street sweeping restrictions and they don't exempt someone from having to register a vehicle if it is parked in the area over night for 30 days whether those nights are consecutive or not. If they did not trump the restrictions, what would be the point in having the passes? Instead, they are meant for residents to be able to have guests come to visit and not be ticketed in the usual RPP two-hour zone or the more restrictive Enhanced RPP that now exists on the north side of R Street.
The Enhanced RPP on R Street is meant to limit people from outside of zone 5 areas from being able to come and park on that side of block at all. For example, if you live in Ward 1 (or Maryland) and wanted to come to the Big Bear, you could not park on that side of the street. Of course, since so few people drive to the Bear from outside of the area, this example is just hypothetical. But it will be less hypothetical when the Firehouse restaurants open at the end of the year and many more people will be driving to Bloomingdale to go to those places.
And zones like the one on R exist all over Ward 1 now and are especially noticeable in the U Street entertainment district. They are meant to preserve parking for residents (and their guests).
John T. Salatti
(202) 986-2592
John.Salatti@gmail.com
"Together, Building a Better Bloomingdale"
Thanks John, but I don't think that's quite right. The green "2 hour limit" signs exempt holders of a "Zone 5 Permit" from the 2 hour limit. Both a "Zone 5 Residential Parking Permit" and a "Visitor Parking Permit" are "Zone 5 Permits," so if vehicles displaying either of these permits can park in the zones regulated by the green "2 hour limit" signs without being ticketed.
The red enhanced residential parking signs exempt holders of "Zone 5 Resident Permits." A "Zone 5 Residential Parking Permit" is such a permit (I will forgive the sign designers for omitting the "ial" at the end of "Resident" in the interest of saving space), but a "Visitor Parking Permit" of any kind is not such a permit. Therefore if you park in a zone regulated by the red "Zone 5 Resident Permit" signs, you will receive a ticket whether you are displaying a "Two Week Visitor Parking Pass" or the year long "Visitor Parking Pass" that DDOT saw fit to issue to everyone.
So to summarize (apologies for the prolixity), a "Visitor Parking Pass" is not a "Resident Parking Permit" so if you display a "Visitor Parking Pass" in an area reserved for "Resident Parking Permits" you will get a ticket. Conversely, a "Visitor Parking Pass" is a "Zone 5 Permit" so if you display a "Visitor Parking Pass" in an area reserved for "Zone 5 Permits" you will not get a ticket.
Thanks as always for your thoughtful engagement on the issues.
-Ted
Oh shit are you kidding me John! you are the biggest liar in Bloomngdale. The Firehouse will have people driving to it but Big Bear doesn't. What a huge load of Bull that is. are you sure you're not selling parking spaces somewhere in Bloomingdale?
From the DDOT site re: yearly visitor passes:
If you live in any of these areas you will receive an annual visitor’s pass that will allow your guests to park on RPP blocks in your community; this includes sides of streets with Resident Only RPP protection. These passes are only valid during the hours of RPP enforcement and they do preclude a resident from Registration of Out of State Automobiles (ROSA) tickets if they live in the District of Columbia and do not register their vehicle with the District DMV within 30 days of moving to the city.
http://ddot.dc.gov/DC/DDOT/Services/Parking+Services/Visitor+Parking+Passes
Here's an excerpt from a discussion last week involving DDOT & DPW regarding this issue:
Resident: "Can you please clarify a rule regarding the Resident Only parking. Are visitors that have 5E residential visitor parking passes on display allowed to park on the Resident Only side of the street?"
From DDOT: "The Resident Only signs do not preclude Ward 5 residents with bona fide RPP stickers, or their guests with valid visitor passes (from MPD, DMV or DDOT) from parking on the Resident Only side of the block."
Resident: "There seems to be a misunderstanding amongst the parking enforcement agents that are assigned to monitor parking in our area. One of the parking enforcement agents told a resident that their visitor was not allowed to park with valid visitor passes on the Resident Only side of the street. Several residents have approached me about this issue. Is it possible to inform all the parking enforcement agents that monitor parking in our area of this procedure? One of the visitors was told by the parking attendant that they would let their visitor off this time, but they were not allowed to park on the Resident Only side."
DDOT: "Perhaps the enforcement folks in the area are not use to Resident Only operations. I will reach out to my colleagues at DPW."
DPW: "Yes you can used a visitor’s pass on that side of the street. I will ensure my staff understands."
***
It appears that this discussion occurred after the incident described in the post (6/5/13). Hopefully, the reminder has already reached the DPW representatives who patrol our area. Nonetheless, the blog post was forwarded to DDOT & DPW yesterday.
I hope this helps.
Best,
Teri Janine Quinn
The website also says (and has said for the past year) that "Visitor Parking Pass is mailed to each residence in the proscribed Wards," so I don't think it's to be trusted.
There is no basis in the DC Code for a "visitor" pass to be used in a zone limited to "resident" permits.
The bigger issue is that the yearly VPP operates as a free substitute for obtaining an RPP if you have DC Tags, and if you have out of state tags and a ROSA exemption it lets you live in DC for as long as you like without ever paying registration fees to the District.
Ted, I very much appreciate the logic that you used to think through this matter of the use of Visitor Parking Passes on streets with Residential Permit Parking (RPP) and Enhanced Residential Permit Parking (ERPP) or Zone 5 only parking. However, logical or not, I can assure you that VPPs trump BOTH RPP and ERPP restrictions. Just to make sure my understanding was correct, I checked with DDOT yesterday and they confirmed what I have said. And that comports with what Teri Janine Quinn posted yesterday. From their point of view, the VPP puts a guest of a zone 5 sticker holder in the shoes of that zone 5 holder. Thus, in the case of R Street, the guest's vehicle can be parked on either the two-hour RPP restricted side of the street OR on the zone 5 only ERPP side of the street with impunity. That's the DDOT view of things. So I renew my offer to assist anyone whose guest receives a parking ticket while parked on the north side of R Street while using a VPP. And I can say that DDOT has gotten tickets like the one that is the subject of this blog posting and others received on regular RPP blocks reversed
As for your point about the VPP being a substitute for a person to avoid purchasing a zone 5 sticker, DDOT is aware that abuse can occur. If a resident who has a VPP gives it to someone who comes to the neighborhood each day, then that user could avoid having to get an RPP sticker, which he or she would very likely not be able to obtain otherwise. However, in any case where it appears some type of abuse is occurring, we can report that to DDOT and have them check out the situation.
So if you believe that anyone is using a VPP inappropriately (e.g., someone with Maryland tags parking on R Street or any block each day with a VPP), then let us know and we can have DDOT check into it. Of course, DDOT may find that a resident has a person come and offer a couple hours of after school childcare each day; in that instance, DDOT would likely consider that childcare provider a legitimate guest of the resident. But if DDOT finds that the user just happens to be a resident's friend and who lives in Maryland and works downtown, then DDOT would likely not consider that person a legitimate guest of the resident and would take action to prevent further abuse of the VPP.
As for Barrie Daneker, although I appreciate that any time he comments he actually enhances anything I have to say, I must note that if Barrie actually spent any time in the south end of the neighborhood that he comments on, he'd see the reality: the Bear does not in fact attract many people who drive. And moreover, it certainly does not attract enough drivers to warrant the ERPP restrictions on R Street. His ignorance of what is actually going on is exposed by the fact that he thinks the Firehouse and the Bear can some how be compared. They cannot. The Bear seats less than 50; the Firehouse will have a seating capacity between 350 and 400. So yes, the Firehouse very likely will have an impact on parking that the Bear has never had and never will have. As with large restaurants all over town, some Firehouse patrons will try to avoid using the valet service that the Firehouse is required to have (unlike the Bear) and will look to park on nearby streets, such as Quincy, R, and Randolph. At that point, the ERPP restrictions will actually benefit residents of R Street. Right now, those restrictions, like the ERPP restrictions along the Ward 1 side of 2nd Street north of Rhode Island, provide little to no benefit to the people who live on those streets that they weren't already getting from the RPP restrictions that have been there for years.
Have a great day,
John
John T. Salatti
(202) 986-2592
John.Salatti@gmail.com
"Together, Building a Better Bloomingdale"
Thanks again John, however, neither DDOT nor DPW can point to any code or regulation that states either that "visitor permit" should be read as "resident permit" for purposes of ERPP enforcement, or that supports the proposition that a VPP entitles a holder to all benefits of an RPP. In essence, in addition to being illogical, the VPP program is arbitrary and capricious.
With regard to abuse, DDOT and DPW have confirmed that if you have DC tags and no RPP the VPP will protect you during zoned parking hours and you will not (obviously) get a ROSA violation for parking your vehicle overnight. Also if you have out of state tags and comply with ROSA the VPP means that you never have to register your car in DC.
So there is no use directing any complaints of abuse to DDOT or DPW because the VPP operates as a free substitute for obtaining an RPP and/or registering your vehicle in DC. Please understand, I'm not trying to be uncivil, but we are all suckers for paying the city for an RPP because you could just use the VPP that is mailed free to you.
Fundamentally, if the problem in our neighborhood is a perceived shortage of parking for residents, I don't understand how blanket distribution of permits that encourage unlimited use of a finite public resource (curb space), including by non-DC residents, could possibly help. Indeed, this could only exacerbate the pressure on available curb space.
-Ted
The visitor's pass program will be changing, when the current passes expire. As of a couple of weeks ago, they had not clarified how it will change.
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