Rob Smuts thinks he found the culprit: Daylight Savings Time. He can explain.
Smuts, city government’s chief administrative officer, had the courage to show his face on a East Rock sidewalk Wednesday and offer that explanation for why hundreds of wrathful neighbors had their cars towed over two days — without, they believed, being warned.
Smuts said he’s pretty sure the city warned most if not all of them to clear their streets for sweeping last month. But he discovered that twice as many cars as usual were towed anyway. So he investigated, and he developed a theory.
Besides his theory about that incident, Smuts had news to report: The city managed to cut in half the number of cars it needed to tow for street sweeping this year. It has plans to try to cut the number more next year.
“A Mystery”
That’s the big picture. The little picture was a horror movie for 250 East Rockers who woke up on Nov. 18 and Nov. 19 to find their cars towed.
Click on the play arrow to watch Smuts’ take on what happened those days. Click here to read a previous story and reader discussion about the episode.
Many towees they hadn’t seen any paper signs the city usually posts to warn people a day in advance that they needed to park elsewhere because of street sweeping.
That was a high number of cars towed, even for East Rock, which, according to Smuts, usually sees the most cars towed during sweeping operations. The city towed a total of 832 cars citywide for street sweeping in November. Those 250 East Rock tows took place in just two days. (The norm for East Rock is 100 to 120, Smuts said.)
“We looked into it,” Smuts said Wednesday during a conversation on Foster Street.
Officials talked to public works supervisors and crews. They said they did post paper “no parking” signs on trees and utility poles every 100 feet or less, the morning or early afternoon before each street sweeping day. Smuts said he would have known if the crews had posted the signs too late, because employees working later than 3 p.m. would have put in for overtime.
Maybe crews skipped some trees and left parts of streets unmarked? Officials would have known about that too, Smuts said. Because a cop and a parking enforcement officer checks the spot where cars are illegally parked before they’re towed. If there’s no sign visible, the car doesn’t get towed, he said.
So Smuts called East Rockers at random. Did you see “no parking” signs? he asked them. All said yes.
Then he contacted some of the towees who had made complaints to hear their story.
“It’s a mystery” what happened, Smuts concluded. “The likeliest explanation is daylight savings time. You have an hour less of light, probably more because of the way the seasons work. It got darker earlier and people didn’t see it.
“There may be some cases where we messed up…” he acknowledged. “We do make mistakes. People who feel they were wrongfully towed can contest their tickets at the city’s traffic and parking office at 200 Orange St.
51 Percent Drop
The East Rock episode was the only major outcry of the year tied to street sweeping, Smuts said. Past years have seen more.
That’s because the city has worked to communicate better, he said. It has been relying more on those posted temporary no parking signs, rather than the metal signs that tell you to clear the streets on certain days from April 1 through Nov. 1. The city is phasing out those metal signs for a couple of reasons: One, to avoid confusion. There’s still street sweeping for leaves after Nov. 1. And the city wants more short-term flexibility in choosing which days to sweep, because it’s best not to sweep on rainy days.
As a result of the city’s efforts, the number of cars towed citywide for street sweeping dropped from 11,320 in 2007 to 5,508 in 2008, a 51 percent change, Smuts reported.
“That is lost revenue for the city, but we’re not trying to trick people and tow their cars,” he said. “The goal is to clean the streets and inconvenience citizens as little as possible.” (Downtown, on the other hand, the city is aggressive about issuing parking tickets, he acknowledged.)
Alternatives?
Smuts was asked why the city doesn’t post signs two days in advance, as some Independent readers have suggested.
The signs don’t always stay up two days, he said. It would cost too much to do them twice, and city workers are needed for other jobs. And again, the city wants to be able to decide which days it’s sweeping on less advance notice, because of the weather.
What about calling people? On Nov. 26, 2007, the mayor made a show last year of unveiling a “reverse 311” automated mass notification system to send phone messages to all or swaths of the city at one time. Why not call people to let them know their cars will be towed the next day?
The city has 25 different street sweeping routes. Right now the reverse 311 system can’t break down lists of people to call into that many different groups. However, Smuts said officials did recently sit down with the system’s vendor, and he’s confident they’ll be able to do that starting next year — and cut down the number of towed cars even more.
Finally, Smuts was asked about people who happen to stay inside their house all afternoon and evening, and therefore don’t see a sign that goes up at 1 p.m.
“It’s your obligation” to check, he responded. “You’re parking on a public street. This is a benefit we’re offering you.”Past Episodes of “Rob Smuts Explains”:
Rob Smuts Explains Potholes, Part II
Rob Smuts Explains Haste On Trash Plan
Rob Smuts Explains The Pothole Menace
Rob Smuts Explains Cop Overtime
Rob Smuts Explains Your Garbage
Rob Smuts Explains The Search
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