Winter Parking Ban

I did not attend the last Public Safety Committee meeting or either of the last two City Council Meetings. Still I have been watching.
One of the more interesting event from those meetings and on the agenda for Tuesday 10/17 is the change in the winter parking ban.
Without any apparent public discussion of last winters experiment the new parking ban was on the council agenda for 10/3 and went to first and second readings. The wording for the new ordinance was published in the S&E on 10/06/2006.
Did I miss something? Was there some hugh positive benefit discovered last year during their 90 day experiment?

• Were there fewer illegally parked cars on city streets during snow emergencies last winter?
• Were Fitchburg streets cleared of snow quicker last winter?
• Were the plows able to do a better job of widening the streets after the storm last winter?

You certainly couldn't tell in my neightborhood. I've lived at the same address for 19 years. In that time I've only seen cars ticketed for violating the winter parking ban ONCE, and it certainly wasn't last winter. There were cars parked on the street in my neighborhood through out every snow emergency declared last winter. As often as not the cars were parked on the street for the entire time of the declared emergency. None of these cars were ticketed, none were towed and the city did their usual inadequate job of plowing.

Sorry for the rant but there's no justification for adopting this unless there's clear evidence that the experiment last year resulted in improved public safety by allowing the DPW to do a better job of clearing snow and ice from the roads. Some people may have considered the experimental ban better (because they got fewer tickets) but ticket revenue is not the purpose of the parking ban. This change does nothing to help find scarce off street parking and the lack of ticketing before the snow flies eliminates the incentive for drivers to find it themselves. Shame on any city councilor that supports this ordinance change.

How about you folks in the FSC area or any other neighborhood for that matter. Did you see any improvement in snow clearing in your neighborhood last winter?