Last month we told you about the lengthy treks that Swedish/Providence employees are taking to find parking. Now the residential parking zone (RPZ) has expanded again to include the 700 block of 21st and the two blocks of E. Columbia from 20th to 22nd.
Check out the difference, starting with the before pic of the 2000 block of E. Columbia:
Now that the new parking signs have gone up, it’s totally empty:
And as you might expect, many of the parkers have just moved north to the 800 block of 22nd where there’s not any signs. If you’re in one of those blocks and want to be added to the RPZ, you just need to get approval of 60% of the neighbors on your block and then follow the instructions here to complete the process:http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/parking/parkingrpz_how. You’ll then get two free stickers to put on your vehicles and leave the commuters to find a new unmarked block.
I advise you all to get on this! I am in Madison Valley and when the block just north of mine (and right off Madison) got an RPZ and I knew everybody who had taken their spaces would just move one block south to my house. And they did – until I went out one night and knocked on doors and got signatures. It was actually kind of fun and I got to meet some neighbors I had not met yet. Everybody appreciated the effort and in no time at all, we got our signs! The fee for the stickers is really low. Now the street inbetween and perpendicular is crammed with cars. I am sure they wish they had gotten their signatures together in time. As I recall, there was a time limit when I did it and had I missed it, I/we would have had to go through a lenghty application process.
The draft SDOT Director’s Rule regarding changes to the RPZ (previously: residential parking zone, now: restricted parking zone) program is available for review and comment until September 8:
More on the SDOT blog.