Gray Ford Bronco

Above you’ll see a bluish gray Ford Bronco. This new style of Bronco is eye-catching. And that is especially true with the bright white wheels.

I know it’s eye-catching because it caught my eye on Thursday while I was walking my foster dog. And then it caught my eye on Friday. And then, once again on Saturday. And each time it’s been in the exact same place along 35th St.

And it’s a perfect example of a problem that has been deviling me since I started on the ANC. That’s because this car has Maryland plates. And it doesn’t have a visitors parking pass. And yet it also doesn’t have a single parking ticket sitting in its windshield wiper. Whoever it is who owns this car has successfully parked it in this spot for at least three straight days without getting a parking ticket.

There’s nothing particularly special about this car. We have all seen out of state cars parked well past the two-hour limit over-and-over again without seeing any pink tickets applied. The only thing that is notable about this car is that it is literally notable due to its style. And yet it didn’t catch the eye of any DPW ticketing authority.

As Commissioner, I’ve had meeting after meeting with representatives from DPW pleading with them to please start enforcing the parking rules. Ever since the pandemic in particular, people have learned that there simply is no risk in parking all day long in Georgetown. The response from DPW is always that they’re doing their best and everyone across the city is asking them for the exact same thing. It’s frustrating and exhausting.

What the city is promising is a significant increase in the number of automatic license plate readers. These are scanners on the DPW cars that can log every car on the block simply by driving down it. This is a huge improvement over the manual method that currently reigns, whereby the ticketing officer has to enter each car manually into the system. And then do it again at least two hours later before they can give a ticket. With an automated reader, an officer can scan their whole beat in a fraction of the time it currently takes.

Right now the city has ten license plate readers for the whole city. They will soon have 100. That’s a huge jump, but I’m still not sure it’s sufficient to get us to the point where people (particularly those from the region) have any genuine fear that they will get a parking ticket in Georgetown if they park all day (or all many days). Even when they have an eye-catching brand new Ford Bronco with sparkling white wheels.