Snow Covered Cars Are Targets For Tickets
It has been a over a week since Chicago got hit with its first substantial snowfall of the season.
And if you park on the street, and haven’t cleared the snow off your car, dug it out or better yet, moved your vehicle out of the space it’s been hibernating in for the past week, you had better get your butt in gear.
If you don’t know already, motorists are required by law to move their street parked vehicle every seven days. Otherwise you can be ticketed and ultimately towed for Chicago municipal code violation #09-80-110(a)–or in English,”Abandoned Vehicle: 7 Days or Incapable of Operation.”
Many city dwellers find a choice spot on their street and just leave it parked there until the weekend while utilizing the CTA to get to work during the week. Or perhaps it’s a second vehicle not used very often.
In normal circumstances, unless the tires are gone, the windows smashed in or the car was a victim of a fire or accident, it’s hard to tell that a vehicle is abandoned or has not been moved.
But, a week or more after a substantial snowfall, it is VERY easy to see what cars have not been moved. The humongous snow drift on top of the car or a vehicle locked in a snowplow created glacier is the tip off.
So don your long underwear and snowsuit and get shoveling. Hopefully, the fear of a $75 ticket and a potential tow (another $160) will inspire you to get moving.
GEEK EDITOR’S NOTE: This is essentially a reprint from last year, but this type of annual advice is our version of “public service” to remind readers about how to best avoid tickets.
Ah yeah for our safety and security I’m sure. Because no one would think to re-write the law and factor in that a person could go on vacation for 7 days right.
Geek, what about Parkersburg in this situation with a handicap placard who can’t easily shovel out their car. This would create a hardship and may be a violation of the Americans With Disability Act.
Doc………….this is about Chicago.
Its a Well Known Fact that this is Enforced and I mean by CPD and Revenue.
I’d Suggest you Read the ADA Act of 1990 before you spout off like that.
Snow or no snow, I’m sick of all you selfish a$$holes who think you’re entitled to garage/store their vehicles on city streets indefinitely. Owning/operating a vehicle is a privilege, not a right.
If you can afford to take a vacation, you can afford to make long-term parking arrangements like everyone else.
And if you’ve got a HCP, you’re already being cut a lot of slack all year long. No one owes you jack squat.
Let me get this straight The City can ticket you because you did not move your car for 7 days, although you have a current City Sticker and Plates?
Thats right Lance Uppercut these people paid for the City Sticker and Plates and they have the right to park legally any where they choose for however long they damn well please. Just because some sharpie from the City Dept of “just make things up and ticket them” Revenue thinks it okay does not make it right
Lance if you dont like it perhaps you should move back to Schaumburg
“And if you’ve got a HCP, you’re already being cut a lot of slack all year long. No one owes you jack squat.”
Lance, My father is a wheelchair bound WWII vet. Stop by his house and tell him that to his face you useless piece of shit. I am also a disabled vet and entitled to HCP’s though I don’t have them. The way I see it you do owe the both of us something…and you owe every single disabled veteran something…you owe all of us an apology.
Lance….
Point 1.
CPD and Streets and Sanitation employees conduct daily and weekly inspections of the various Wards to locate vehicles that are in violation of this City Policy.
Point 2.
Department of Revenue PEA’s only Issue the “Abandoned Vehicle/7 Days” violation on Vehicles with Expired or No Plates.
Point 3.
I personally agree that if someone can afford to take a vacation, that they should remove their vehicle from the City Street and stick it into a Lot or in a Garage. Its actually safer there and would also be covered by the properties Insurance in case of damage or theft.
Point 4.
You want to rag on HCP plated vehicles or placard users? Make sure its in regards to Mis-Use or Abuse. Nil Points for any other issue.
Sargon…
1 point.
The Department of Revenue, for the most point; does not Create the municipal codes that they enforce. That Job Falls upon the Aldermanic Council. While the Dept does make suggestions for new codes or for alterations to existing codes; we don’t make the Policy, we just enforce it…what ever it is.
I make no apologies. Legislation like “Free Rides for Seniors” and free parking for the disabled should never have been created in the first place. They’re entitled to the same rights (and obligations) as everyone else.
As for parking/garaging/not moving your car on a city street within a 7 day period, it’s a law. I didn’t write it but it’s there nonetheless. Sure, it’s a pain in the ass but, with street parking at such a high premium, can you imagine if everyone abused that law? If you want to park on the street for weeks/months on end, move to the suburbs.
Your city sticker and license plates grant you virtually nothing in terms of actual value or “rights” . . . consider them recessive wheel taxes. I love that “I PAID FOR A CITY STICKER, I’M ENTITLED TO DO WHATEVER!” BS.
Lance…
Can I imagine if everyone abused that law?
Shit…pick a Silver spoon ward….like 44 or 43 or 32 or 2 or 46 or 11.
You can easily see it Daily, weekly, Monthly. Snow covered vehicles that havn’t moved in weeks. Leave covered cars that havn’t moved in a month of Sundays.
Leaves and Crap piled up under the vehicles, showing that they haven’t moved since god only knows what last street cleaning day.
“I make no apologies. Legislation like “Free Rides for Seniors” and free parking for the disabled should never have been created in the first place. They’re entitled to the same rights (and obligations) as everyone else.”
Lance Uppercut, anti-humanist, scumbag, piece of shit. May you become paraplegic and sit, wheel chair bound, staring at some sort of barrier blocking your path.
The 7 day law serves a purpose. When there is an abandoned or long-term unused car on a street, that car puts a parking place out of commission. If you live in a neighborhood with tight parking, this makes everyone have to fight a little harder for the spaces that are left. Parking is a limited resource. Especially in much of Chicago. The law is a very reasonable way to optimize that resource.
I’ve always known when there were abandoned cars on my block. They get vandalized. They become eyesores. They gather litter around them. That sort of thing invites the attention of city enforcement, as it should. There are also people who keep rarely used cars on my street, but because they keep them neat and orderly, and move them around occasionally so the streets get washed, no one seems to mind.
The Geek has a good point, on which I shall mix a metaphor. If you don’t stick out like a sore thumb, you probably won’t get hammered.
I thought handicapped people just wanted to be treated like everyone else? Guess I was wrong.
And you can save the “angry vet/patriot” act for the stage.
[...] this website has been warning since the winter began, cars covered with snow a week or more after a big snowstorm are easy prey [...]
There’s a BMW that’s been parked in front of my front door for almost 3 weeks now. Snow has come and gone. I even shoveled enough around it so the guy could drive out. I can’t get the city to ticket or tow this car. I’ve called the alderman’s office and 311, what else can I do? Car does not look neglected.