Slippery ice, single-digit temperatures and treks through snow are not the only unwanted consequences of winter at Northwestern. For those who have their car at school, a slew of parking tickets is an almost-expected consequence of the snowy season.
The most common types of parking citations in Evanston are for expired meters, parking during street cleaning, parking longer than the maximum time allowed and not having an up-to-date Evanston vehicle sticker displayed, according to the City of Evanston’s parking website.
The city issues tickets to students for leaving their cars parked on the street during snow emergencies.
Exact statistics for the number of vehicle-related tickets issued by the Evanston parking patrol are not immediately available, said Eric Palmer, community information coordinator for the city.
“The issue is not epidemic, and parking, especially during snow emergencies, is not just a students’ issue but a community-wide thing,” explained Palmer.
Bienen sophomore Caitlin Mead has received a ticket for going over her allotted parking time.
“I was parked in front of the Sherman and Main apartments, which is two-hour parking, and I had meetings that day so I ran back in between two of them to move it,” Mead said. “But I was parked between two cars in parallel parking, and there was a moving truck that was parking me into the curb so I couldn’t move it.”
Mead said when she came back 30 minutes after the two-hour limit was up, she found a parking ticket, even though the moving truck was still there. While Mead’s case may be understandably frustrating, she said she believes that street parking in Evanston is “really reasonable.”
Students who have received parking tickets have differing opinions regarding parking around campus.
“This year I’ve gotten three tickets, all from Evanston police,” said Weinberg sophomore Anne-Marie Ormson. “But I wouldn’t have anything against Northwestern for the parking rules and regulations since they have their own parking lots on school grounds for their students.”
McCormick senior Vanessa Huerta, whose car was towed in October for parking in a towing zone, said it is hard to find parking where she normally parks.
“I park at Ridge and Noyes and everybody parks at Maple,” Huerta said. “There are not that many parking spaces so it’s kind of hard. So I’m not really satisfied but I do what I can.”
Palmer stresses that parking issues are not specific just to Northwestern but to the Evanston community as a whole. Palmer said he does not have a solution to increase parking spaces in the city, but suggested other ways to avoid parking problems in the winter.
“Parking is pretty limited in the Evanston area,” he said. “But I think the biggest thing in the winter time is for students to sign up for the snow alert system on the city website so they are alerted about snow emergencies and know when to move their car. It’s about what we can do as a community to help keep one another educated about these issues.”
