This has been brewing for some time but came to a boil this morning as I saw the mocking parking violation accenting my parked car on Everett Ave. Nevermind that it is a national day of observance for former President Gerald Ford and the first day after New Year's, factors that would contribute to folks sleeping and resting in, therefore having more cars parked on the streets but I suppose the city of PA needs to make a buck to start off the new year.
No, my main gripe with the street sweeping no parking zones is that it punishes energy conservation and clean air communters.
We all know how necessary it is to have a car in order to get around the Bay Area regardless of what transportation we take to work. As the Downtown North and other sections of PA are dense residential areas it is reasonable to surmise that there will be many cars parked on these streets. Yet we are forced to move our cars on the biweekly street sweeping days. This causes all sorts of havoc on our usual carpools, bus commutes, train commutes, and biking. We are forced to deal with our cars and must vary when we get into work, shuffle the car around to other streets, or nullifying our energy and clean air commuter status and benefits.
Or else pay a parking ticket because we want to decrease traffic congestion and be more energy and clean air friendly.
I would like to see the street sweeping no parking zones abolished due to the above reasons. There must certainly be ways in which the street sweeping public works team can use a combination of street sweepers and perhaps personnel-manned leafblowers (there should not be a ban on leafblowers in the first place) and other alternatives to do as good a job at street sweeping without requiring the movement of the cars.
