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#115899 11/15/03 02:14 PM
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The idea behind alternate side parking is that everybody parks on the even side of the street (the side on which the buildings with even addresses are) on even numbered days and on the odd side on odd numbered days. This is not as simple as it sounds, since the day in question is the following day (it's overnight parking that is being regulated) and you get consecutive odd numbered days at the end of months with an odd number of days. As I understand it, it's a snow-plowing thing, assuring that at least one side of the street will be fully plowed if overnight plowing is a necessity.


#115900 11/15/03 02:32 PM
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it's a snow-plowing thing

Going back to of troy's post...and Bingely's question...this has *what to do with religious holidays?


#115901 11/15/03 05:05 PM
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in NYC, alternate side of the street parking is all the time, (not just for snow)its for street cleaning...

so 2 days of the week (on my block, thursday and friday) all cars have to be moved..(the street need to be clear of parked cars--between 9:30 and 11) one side thursday, one side friday..

these regulations are 'suspended' for religious holidays.. (religious jews, made the arguement, they could not comply, it was interfering with their ability to freely practice their faith-- (since on certain holydays, like on the sabbeth, they can not light a match--(make a spark) so they also can not 'start' a car...)

well, being politically savvy, the holiday/holydays that had 'exemptions' grew... and eventually, some savvy person, demanded the same for 'christian holiday' (all 10 RCatholic 'holy days of obligation')--but really there is no compelling reason why catholics couldn't move a car.. its just no politian wants to be arguing against an organized religion...

the muslim community has in recent years, reached a number large enough to represent a voting 'bloc'-- and they too have gotten polically savy, so now, the last few days of ramadan, (coming soon), and other muslim holidays,(i don't know them, or their signifigance, but i love to hear 'alternate side of the street parking is suspended today' are also 'exempt'--

so slowly but surely, alternate side of the street parking days are being reduced...

I am waiting for the other religious groups--from all over the world, to join in....

sure the streets might be a little dirtier... but parking will be easier..

please note, if you forget to move your car, a $100 parking ticket will be your 'reward'-- and the days and hours of regulation change, from block to block, so you have to construct large mental of maps of where you can park when, or you need to change your schedule, or sit and wait for a space, or sit double parked (un manned double parked cars get tickets too!) for the duration of alternate side of the street..

i get off easy... in many neighborhoods in manhattan, its posted that double and triple fines are in effect.. (so they get $200 or $300 parking tickets!) visitors to my fair city, (if they have ever paid for parking) have been astounded at the cost... but paying for parking is cheaper than 2 tickets--which is how the parking garages stay in business. but i am cheap, i like to park for free.



#115902 11/16/03 12:07 AM
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Never having had to cope with this alternate side parking routine, would I be correct in assuming that once the plow or street sweeper has passed down a block, the previously verboten side of the street then becomes fair game?


#115903 11/16/03 02:56 AM
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not until proper time has elapsed.. if the sweeper shows up at 9:31, you still can't park there till 11--

oh, and Dept of Sanitaion, as well as Dept of Traffic can hand out tickets..

its something of scandel right now.. city is in a budget crunch.. we lost billions of dollars in past 2 years, the tourist industry is big money maker, not to mention many business relocated to NJ and LI immediately after 9/11 and never came back.. and many business lost in .... well end result, city budget is in red, and city as responded by a ticketing blitz!

i won't even begin to get into extra expenses NYC has, that fed's has refused to help with.. we are always 'one color code higher alert' than the rest of the country, and we do not get federal cops, NYC just has to put more of its own cops on the street, even if it requires OT... and UN has had a busy year.. we do not get 'extra money' for UN...just extra grief of traffic and security nightmares!


#115904 11/16/03 09:53 AM
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woah, glad i don't have a car


#115905 11/19/03 11:10 AM
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In my neighborhood, we can park on either side of the street, with the exception of 2am to 6am, alternate sides of the street. This means I can park in front of my house Tuesday night, Thursday night, and Saturday and Sunday nights. Monday night, Wednesday night and Friday night I have to park on the other side of the street. This is not a problem unless you have the flu and have to drag yourself out at some point to move your car or if you go away on vacation, leaving your car behind. Then you have to find a good place to store the car while you're gone.


#115906 11/20/03 01:00 PM
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This seems as good a place as any to trot out one of my Pommy Pet Peeves.

The motor car has been a fact of life in England for a century or more, now, but the city planners seem to have entered into a conspiracy to ignore its existence. Streets in new estates are narrow to the point of absurdity. New estates also very rarely have anywhere to park on the road at all, the assumption being, presumably, that you will never want more cars than you have garage space for. The streets on the estate I currently live on, built in the early 1960s, are wider than modern ones. But they are still too narrow to have legally parked cars on both sides of the road, plus a space between the parked cars on opposite sides of the road wide enough to allow two meeting cars to pass.

Everybody therefore puts at least two wheels up on the footpath which is, strictly speaking, illegal.

This is just one facet of the anti-car official British attitude which I find inexplicable, given that the people who organise and run the diastrous railway network couldn't run a successful booze-up in a brewery.


#115907 11/20/03 04:01 PM
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What is meant by "estate"? Over-cross-pond here it means something different. I think I know, having spent time in England, but I'd rather a native &/or resident splain me &/or us.


#115908 11/22/03 02:38 AM
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Buncha houses built by a developer as a job lot. Usually aims to maximise both profits and the discomfort of the unfortunate purchasers, since most estate houses are little more than dog boxes ...


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