In recent weeks, Mayor Adrian Fenty gave DC a parting gift to kick off the holiday season. Months ago, the District Department of Transporation (DDOT) announced new unlimited parking meter rates after 6:30 PM in the busiest parts of the city. However, new signs which are worded in a way that seems deliberately confusing are only just now being installed.
As the Washington Post reported in July, the new signs include contradictory wording, and in the months since the original announcement, neither the DC Government or the DDOT has made any additional efforts to explain the new rules or the new signs. Despite the lack of community outreach, DDOT has nevertheless started issuing tickets in areas where the new signs have recently been installed.
The sign begins by advertising 2-hour parking from 9:30 AM-6:30 PM, and then includes the seemingly too-good-to-be-true caveat at the bottom which reads, “no time limit parking, 6:30 PM-10:00 PM.” However, as the DDOT press release makes clear, no time limit doesn’t mean you don’t still have to pay. The DC government will now gladly take all your pocket change at the rate of 25 cents for every 7 1/2 minutes for as long as you would like to park your car.
The DC Government has earned a reputation for shoddy signage as the city’s parking enforcers have escalated the issuing of tickets in the past few years, but the new parking signs are the first time that a street sign is internally contradictory with itself. Perhaps this “gift” from Mayor Fenty is one reason why voters in the District chose not to re-elect him.
