Not to state the obvious, but the the winter snow season is apparently upon us. When I went into office today, I discovered that my usual parking area was, at least for the moment, an illegal spot. It had one of those lovely "No Parking when snow is over 2 inches" zones. While it was actually debatable if there was actually two whole inches of snow on the ground, I didn't feel like making any contributions to City of Chicago's Department of Revenue today.
The other favorite winter parking ban which year after year seems to come as a shock to so many, is the overnight ban that starts midnight December 1st and ends April 1st. Rain or shine, please god whatever you do, don't park there from 3am-7am. They'll tow you faster than you can possibly imagine, or maybe you can imagine, so feel free to add your own cliche.
1) Check the whole block for signs....the city won't have any sympathy for you if the sign was all the way down at the other corner....speaking from experience here.
2) If there's snow on the ground in a "2 inch" zone, don't park there, period. I personally don't want to leave it open the City of Chicago's interpretation of 2 inches.
3) Just because there are other cars there, doesn't mean you won't get towed. It just means more revenue for the city.
4) Sitting in your car might increase your chance of not getting towed, but that doesn't mean that you still won't get a ticket.....speaking from someone else's experience.
Here's the nitty gritty on Chicago's overnight and snow related parking bans.
Have any horror stories about getting towed in this wonderful city? Please share, I'm sure others can learn from your experiences too.
Photo thanks to Chicagoist.com
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