Currently, Watertown enforces an overnight parking ban by prohibiting parking longer than one hour between 1:00 AM and 6:00 AM from approximately December through March. The primary rationale for this measure, which is enforced through the issuance of parking tickets, is to allow for better snow removal. The downside to such a ban is that many residents and their guests find themselves unable to store their vehicles anywhere near their homes overnight.
The Watertown winter parking ban unfairly penalizes those with fewer means who do not have access to off-street parking. During the cold, dark winter months, parents with young children, the elderly, the disabled and many others are asked to walk a mile or two in the dark to go park their car in a remote lot, which then fills up.
We understand that Watertown officials charged with the responsibility of making our streets safe are calling this a public safety issue, namely that emergency vehicles need to get through and if people park in the street during winter, at night, they cannot. But, if our streets have an emergency vehicle access problem, that is a problem which persists year-round, 24 hours a day — not just at night, in winter. Those streets need a different layout, one where parking is only allowed on one side, for example. We can fix that without leaving our vulnerable population desperately scrambling for some solution for where to put their car 4 months out of the year.
When we do get substantial snowfall, which is becoming more rare, a snow emergency can be issued for a specified time as Boston and Cambridge do. During those times, our community can band together and help those in need. Let us adopt some common sense and accept the reality that people in the 21st century need to use cars, and that cars are most useful when they can be stored near our homes. In a community as dense as Watertown, off-street parking for everyone is simply not feasible unless we want to pave over all of our green spaces.
For those of you who wish to live with better parking, please visit our website, download and sign the petition and mail it in to 12 Upland Road, Watertown, MA 02472
Jean & Gretchen Dunoyer, 17 Adams Avenue
Charlo Maurer, 5 Appleton Street
David Quilter, 12 Upland Road
Nan Decker, 106 Spruce Street
Rita Colafella, 56 Cuba Street
Kassie Richardson
Tyna Bitsoli, 67 Philip Darch Rd
Rachel Chasteen
Sandy Moynihan: 131 Lexington St
I really hope that our city councilors and town manager will take a serious look at our petition. This parking regulation makes so many people’s lives more difficult in a time when we have very few large snow storms. And when we do, an emergency can be called. Please support our families with young children, people who work until late night hours, our landlords looking for tenants, and all those without the means to buy a home with a driveway or garage and take the time to sign the petition.
Promoting policies that allows residents to bring more motor vehicles onto the city streets to compensate for insufficient off-street parking is in direct conflict with Watertown’s Climate and Energy Plans Transportation and Mobility long term goals. The city councilor who is coaching and helping solicit the petition signatures should know this and be walking the city talk instead of the usual pandering to special interest and activist groups at the expense of most neighborhood residents. The denser areas in Watertown are unkept and in decline. The city residents deserve cleaner streets for their very hard-earned tax dollars. Leaving motor vehicles parked bumper to bumper curbside 24/7 is a root cause of the problem and one of the main contributing factors. Street sweepers are ineffective if they are denied full access to do their job.
It’s really unrelated to Climate goals. One might even argue that it supports them, since cars parked on the street make it narrower, so people accelerate more gently and drive more slowly. It’s akin to traffic calming, which is desperately needed throughout the town.
I get that it’s inconvenient, but in winter when you can’t get down the side roads due to cars parked on both sides of the streets and doordash delivery drivers double parked everywhere, let alone emergency services access to homes, it is disingenuous to lift the parking ban during the snowy months of winter…And once the snow comes there is even less space to park on the streets due to plowing and snowbanks…
The town has historically lifted the ban during Holidays and early spring when there is no chance of snow or inclement weather.
These steps of limited parking bans are more effective than removing the parking ban entirely.
One suggestion: With all the new life science and lab spaces built around town why can’t residents park in those empty parking lots at night? There is tons of space that is virtually unused and prime real estate during the winter parking ban…
I have mobility challenges and admit the parking bans can make it difficult in winter but I believe we need to weigh the needs of the city as well as the individual needs of the residents. Ask anyone who has had a
medical emergency or a fire at their house how important it was for First responders to get to them as quickly as possible…In winter it would be impossible to get a fire engine down Chapman Street if the Parking ban was lifted and the street lined in snowbanks and covered with a scrim of ice.
Watertown PD:
“Watertown Parking Regulations
Parking on all Watertown streets is prohibited for more than one hour between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. This regulation is strictly enforced from November through April.”
So it is not just for Winter. The PD is just cutting you a break during the other months. It mirrors what Belmont has, but they will ticket you every time they can.
Leave the regulation as it is.
Not clear on what “break” I am getting accumulating parking tickets for storing my vehicle on a public byway because there is nowhere else I can put it.
If you got the tickets in Winter, you were clearly forewarned, unless the concept of “Strictly enforced” eludes you.
Incidentally, unless your car is protected from the elements and not driven for long periods, you are parking it, not storing it.
Did you get “storing” tickets?
The PD isn’t “cutting anyone a break”. The ban has always been for the winter by law. The only discretion the police have it to end the ban early based on weather conditions.
Wrong.
“Parking on all Watertown streets is prohibited for more than one hour between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. This regulation is strictly enforced from November through April.”
Translation for you: It is ALWAYS prohibited. It means from January through December. But you are most likely to get a ticket from November through April, (can you understand the Strictly Enforced bit?) and not during the other months where the PD has apparently chosen to exercise leniency.
“unable to STORE their vehicles”? Did the author mean to say park or is this the new or latest term for on street parking?
I ask because in the past couple of years, I’ve seen it used in lieu of the more common and accepted word ‘park’ or ‘parking. Oddly enough it’s used by those that are opposed to or have a problem with cars in urban areas and will complain about ‘owners storing their private property on public roads’.
Just seems strange that a group of citizens looking to do away with the winter parking ban would choose to use a term that has anti-car implications.
As far as any problems that could arise for emergency vehicles being unable to negotiate any streets that might be narrower due to the combination of snow and parked vehicles, how have they been doing with some of the streets that have been permanently narrowed by design? For example: Edenfield Rd. and Nichols Ave?
I’m guessing that if they can mange to get down those streets fine, they should be able to do the same if cars are parked on the streets during the winter.
Mr. Green, in response to first responders ability to fully navigate road dieted streets such as Edenfield Avenue: No, fire engines are too wide to drive down the street when snow banks encroach the roadway and there are motor vehicles parked on both sides of the street. I have witnessed this on multiple occasions where assistance was needed and rendered by the fire department first responders on foot to the residence where called. Watertown has a serious parking problem on its residential side streets. Over renting units is placing profits over public safety. Watertown should fully enforce its residential parking ordinance in its entirety all year round.
I could not agree more. The Watertown PD Parking regulations include:
“ Parking on all Watertown streets is prohibited for more than two consecutive hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, Monday through Saturday unless otherwise posted”
As I see non-residents cars parked on my street for 8-plus hours Monday through Friday, mornings and afternoons, without getting a ticket year after year, it seems clear that the PD is not enforcing this particular regulation. Perhaps the City Manager and City Council need to take a second look at this, and get the revenue for it.
Our city has many narrow twisting hilly streets. Street parking is brutal when you need to pull out of the driveway. It’s brutal for snow removal, and the only measure that makes sense from a public safety perspective is to expand the ban to all year. Plus, if you lift it, the ‘space savers’ i.e. the lawn chairs, the stray furniture will be right behind. The break that advocates are promoting is a mirage. People will start squatting and develop a sense of entitlement to a space.
I have to say, I find it very hypocritical of the town that this ban gets enforced but yet Toyotas employees take up blocks of spaces on N Beacon and Arsenal 6 days a week from 9-7. So we’re subsidizing a private company that doesn’t have sufficient parking but residents can’t leave their cars out overnight.
I fully support revamping our winter parking rules. I’m fortunate enough to have off street parking available in the winter. Though it would be nice to not have to juggle cars with the folks in other units in our building to get in and out of the driveway. I know people in town who don’t have that luxury. They often have to park far from their homes for months at a time. Moving to a ban only during snow emergencies makes a world of sense to me.
If this passes the people in Belmont on the Watertown line will be thrilled. Belmont has no overnight parking 12 months a year.
Many Belmont people park overnight in Watertown when the parking ban is not enforced. If it passes, I hope there will be alternating years of odd and even sides of the street.
There have been times on our street , when the ban was not in effect that our neighbor was woken up at 3 a.m. so an ambulance could get to our house.
I’m not for or against the ban. Make a thoughtful decision.
The winter parking ban has been a contentious issue here for quite some time now, even before the gentrification began. Now as more people are moving in, the demand for parking during anytime of the year has increased and shows no sign of abating for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, there aren’t many alternative solutions, but City officials can at least acknowledge that more parking will be needed in order to accommodate the influx of new arrivals.
Parking minimums should remain in place for all new construction including ADU’s, along with a resident and business parking permit system along the bus corridors to discourage commuters from driving here then parking on residential streets to catch the bus to their destinations. It doesn’t solve all the problems but it would be a good start.
As far as the winter parking ban is concerned, I can see both sides of the issue: that it could be problematic for emergency response crews, and as noted by others, the narrowing of some streets has already become an issue, not just for response crews, but drivers as well (again, poor decision making by those in charge and never should have been implemented in the first place).
On the other hand, it makes life difficult for those without off street parking. Some argument could be made that they should have done their homework first before deciding to move here, but it’s too late for that now, and unlike decades past, many family’s require having more than one car.
Eliminating the ban could work BUT it would require the cooperation of those caught up in the dilemma to find alternative parking when needed and strict enforcement with fines and towing for those that fail to move their vehicles during a declared emergency. We already have an alert system in place that would simplify letting residents know when they have to find alternative parking.
With that in mind, I suggest a trial run. Give eliminating the ban a shot, and if it doesn’t work out, simply go back to the system we currently have.
Very on point. It’s easy to argue both ways. Parking has been a challenge for a long time and will continue to be so. I think Watertown should have snow emergencies and not a full winter ban.
Let me guess, you don’t live in a mixed zoned neighborhood. Take a drive around the city on the trash with recycling days. There is no road or room left for any more motor vehicles or more containers. The city doesn’t care and compounds the problems with bad decisions made without data. Ask your city officials if they know how many motor vehicles are on the streets in Watertown and you will get exactly what they know and that’s nothing. This city is run by unhinged activists who live in neighborhoods that don’t have these issues. They use other people’s neighborhoods for their feel good social experiments. Take a drive around the dense neighborhoods in the early morning hours and see how many motor vehicles are packed on home lots and the streets and up over walkways. They are no longer neighborhoods. The quality of life for the resident taxpaying homeowners sucks!!
I totally agree and think it is illogical and unfair to enforce winter ban when there is no snow on the ground. That ban should be put in place only for snow emergency, which is less and less frequent nowadays. Those who argue in favor of keeping the ban should try walking a few miles in cold wintery nights to see how it feels to park your car miles away even though there is no compelling reason for it.
Traffic and parking have always been a problem in Watertown. It’s a small, densely populated community. Nothing to do with “unhinged activists” or “feel good social experiments”. And decisions are very much based on data, whether the person questioning the decision likes the conclusion or not!
Hello everyone,
My name is Samantha Chaney and I am a reporter at WBZ CBS Boston. I’m reaching out as we are covering efforts to end the Watertown parking ban today. Is there anyone here that would be willing to share their thoughts on this issue? You can be for it or against it— I’m open to hearing all perspectives.
Thank you!
Hi:
We did that already. Please read all the comments above.
Our campaign to end the ban was on the news! https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/winter-parking-ban-watertown/