Orange Alert!: Winter Parking Ban Takes Effect 3AM Tuesday
I have the ability to see the future.
I looked into my crystal ball and predict that hundreds of cars will magically disappear all over Chicago streets under the cover of darkness in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Hundreds of drivers will get up Tuesday morning, put on their coats and walk out to where there car was parked and find it missing. It will be like a vehicular rapture from the Book of Revelation.
These poor car-less souls will be shocked and confused. They will wail and grind their teeth. The will wander aimlessly around until they figure out their cars were towed because of the winter ban on overnight parking.
That’s right, at 3 AM early Tuesday morning, Chicago’s winter parking ban will take effect and will remain in place until April 1st.
If you park your car on one of these streets overnight, you can be ticketed and towed. The tow will cost you $150 plus $10 a day storage fee and that’s on top of a $50 ticket.
This ban effects major city arteries, 107 miles of roadway to be exact, where no parking is allowed overnight from 3 AM – 7 AM, no matter the weather.
IMPORTANT GEEK NOTE: Do NOT ignore the signs just because there is no snow!
Snow, ice, dry pavement– park overnight on one of these streets and you’re making a trip to the auto pound the next morning.
Normally, on the first day/night of winter parking ban towing, the city nails a few hundred unprepared motorists. Don’t be one of these poor suckers.
And assume that enforcement will be even more harsh than in previous years. Last year the Sun-Times embarrassed Streets & Sanitation and the administration by showing that towing revenue was off by nearly 50% due to staff cuts. This, combined with a revenue hungry administration, I would expect armies of tow trucks patrolling these streets this year.
Map of Overnight Parking Restrictions from 3 AM – 7 AM, Dec. 1-Apr. 1
Historically, the winter parking bans resulted from several terrible winter storms, especially the Blizzard of ’67, when the snow was so deep, it was nearly impossible to clear the snow with all the cars parked on the main arterial roadways.
“These routes are critical and need to be kept up and running at all times so that emergency vehicles, buses and cars are able to get through,” stated Thomas G. Byrne, Commissioner of Streets & Sanitation via departmental press release. “It is very important for our residents who park on the street to work with us to keep these critical routes open to full capacity by obeying the winter parking regulations.”
Last year, Streets & Sanitation made an effort to distribute fliers a few times in the weeks leading up to December 1st along the entire route warning drivers of the impending ban. As of today, we were not able to confirm if the city had taken this same action this year.
Here’s a map of the streets where the overnight parking ban is in effect, a full listing of those streets where overnight parking is restricted.
Check out our upcoming post on Snow Routes (2″ ban) that will go into mind numbing detail on this winter parking subject.
And these “Snow Routes” help us HOW?
And to think I walked out of my apartment this morning and happily thought to myself, “No more street cleaning!”
Look on the bright side.
Department of Revenue isn’t allowed to enforce this restriction. Just have to worry about CPD
John Adams,
Snow routes help us by preventing vehicles from being snowed in during blizzards, then plowed in when the streets are cleared.
This is the answer to problems experienced over and over. The streets could never be fully plowed curb to curb, parked cars were snow-bound for weeks, and there were then limited driving lanes and parking spaces.
TrafficCalmer,
So taking away parking on 5 East/West streets, and 4 or 5 North/South streets solves this problem for the entire city?
And the 50.00 ticket, the towing fee of 150.00, plus the storage fee of 10.00 a day is a fitting punishment for the crime of parking?
And this snowplowing only happens from 3am to 7am?
And we get ticketed and towed even if there is no snow, and the weather is clear, and I’m in my t-shirt as I walk back to my apt?
And this helps us how?
-John Adams
Hey Parking Ticket Geek,
I’m not sure the map is all-inclusive. Sheridan used to be a Snow Route, but on the 4600 north block of Sheridan I just saw a Snow Route sign that read “No Parking from 3am to 7am when snow is over 2 inches”. No dates, nothing else, just that sign.
Not sure if this was left over when they removed all the other signs, but I’m not taking any chances.
Does the city plow the impound lots too?
There are two snow route bans. The one PTG is talking about here has NOTHING to do with snow, or snow removal. It is purely revenue generation for the city. This is because it has NOTHING to do with the weather. It is just a random parking ban for certain hours on certain streets, regardless of the weather.
The other snow route ban makes much more sense, banning parking when snow is over 2 inches to facilitate it’s efficient removal. This ban is in effect on many more streets in the city.
Look, everything is not some sneaky scheme. We used to do it the old way and it was a mess. It sure didn’t help parking to have unplowed parking lanes.
And as a money generator it doesn’t amount to much. Every year on December 1st they tow about 150 cars that belonged to those who can’t read, won’t read, or just got here from Iowa. After that, they just tow a few from the completely oblivious.
TrafficCalmer,
You didn’t answer my questions. How does a handful of streets set aside as “Snow Routes” help traffic, especially when it’s such odd hours, and no matter the weather?
I mean, you understand that if the car can’t be parked from 3am till 7am, essentially those spots are off limits all night? Because no one is setting their alarm and getting up at 3am to move their vehicle to avoid a ticket…so how does this help parking? How does this help traffic? Keep in mind, this is only a HANDFULL of streets in the entire city…I just don’t see how it helps.
Only 150 cars on Dec 1st? Just curious, how do you know this?
FYI – They towed 234 last night. With the towing fee and the storage fee, that comes to about $16,000 for last night alone. Not sure how Traffic calmer can say that doesn’t amount to much.
And what it does is jam the side streets more.
I have never understood this law myself. If it snows – yes, tow them immediately.
But I don’t see how anyone can claim this is about plowing when out of those 120 days we will have maybe 20 of them that will require plowing – if that many.
Guys, I’m 49 years old. Maybe that makes me a dinosaur, but from 1967 to about 1983 we had about five paralyzing snow events. One of the solutions is this simple law.
Without it, one major snow in January lasts in the parking lanes until Spring. Plows need a clear shot and keeping these lanes open at night is the only thing that makes clearing them possible. Once cars get locked in, forget about driving or parking in that lane for weeks.
However many streets it is in number, in miles of streets it is enormous, and these are key arteries.
And $16,000 is a dud of a money-maker in a city of 3 million with a budget of 3 billion. They probably make that every five minutes year round at O’Hare airport.
I don’t mean to say that a guy getting towed on the first night is a completely isolated dolt. He could have moved in that spring and always parks in the same place and doesn’t use his car every day and he learns the lesson the hard way. But the City does give a lot of warning on this.
I’ve said my piece.
I miscalculated – it’s more like $40,000.
And I am 52 years old – I remember the blizzards of 78 and 79 quite well, as well as the blizzard of 67. Part of my job in 78 and 70 was plowing – so I know what it was like.
And I still think this is ridiculous.
I agree – tow the cars when the snow hits – the law about 2″ or more is posted.
But on a night when it is close to 50 degrees and no sign of snow?
Come on.
Bravo, Greg, for 2 points:
1) Pointing out that it jams side streets, and,
2) Making it apparent that pulling out one’s “credentials”, i.e. one’s age, is meaningless.
I’m 41. So what.
John Adams,
I think the use of age is being used as a way to establish that us older guys were around when these events actually happened, perhaps giving us perspective younger people, who didn’t experience these snow events wouldn’t have.
That’s all.
Okay, so this is months after the article, but I have now become the victim of this law. I totally agree with the parking ban for when the snow is over 2″, and that’s really for all the major thoroughfares in the city, so why these streets have been selected for a 3am-7am ban for 3 months regardless of the actual weather is beyond me.
I was babysitting on Foster Ave. last night, and the parents did not get home until 3:20am. I go outside 5 minutes later to find a ticket stuck to my window (written at 3:19, really?!). What kind of jerky cop writes this ticket when it’s 40 degrees and dry as can be? And 3 days before the ban is over? I’m really tempted to fight this, but not sure what the odds are. Any advice?
*I’d post this on Ask the Geek except I cannot seem to find that section to ask a question, only to comment on an existing one. hope I find some help here
Courtney,
I would agree, your ticket totally sucks. But I think you actually got off relatively easy.
Normally, this ticket usually comes with a trip down to the auto pound via a friendly tow truck driver.
This would have cost you an additional $160.
You can try fighting it, but I don’t know how you would be successful. Sorry.