City might change rules for parking on alternate sides
City lawmakers have been asked to consider changing the rules for regular alternate-side-of-the-street parking to make them consistent with what is done citywide during snow emergencies.
Megan Weiss-Rowe, the city’s director of communications and community engagement, told the Common Council’s Public Safety/General Government Committee on Wednesday that the first year of Kingston’s alternate-side parking during snow emergencies went well last winter and received positive feedback. She said that feedback came from vehicle owners who do not
have off-street parking and previously were more likely to be ticketed or have their vehicles towed.
“One of the issues that came up, though, is that we have some streets that
have regular alternateside parking throughout the year, and they use different terminology and they have different rules,” Weiss-Rowe said. She said, for instance, that Green Street has alternate-side parking on specific days of the week, meaning vehicles park on one side on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
and on the opposite side on other days.
Weiss-Rowe said it became increasingly difficult for the city to communicate with the public about snow emergency parking because it sometimes would conflict with the regular alternateside parking rules.
Weiss-Rowe asked members of the committee to
speak with their constituents to find out if there is support for changing regular parking rules to make them consistent with snow emergency rules.
In December 2017, the Common Council adopted a resolution establishing alternate-side parking citywide during snow emergencies. Now, during snow
emergencies, vehicles are required to park on the side of the street with even-numbered addresses on evennumbered dates and on the odd-numbered side on oddnumbered dates.
Vehicles must be switched to the proper side of the street by 7 a.m. on each day of a snow emergency.
Weiss-Rowe said if there
is support for the change, the mayor’s office will come back to the committee next month with a specific proposal. She said the time for vehicles to change sides of the street also could be reconsidered because some residents found 7 a.m. to be difficult as they were getting ready for work in the morning.