Parking Any Time?

More miles of cars than roadway, more than 20,000 people per square mile, accelerating development--is it Los Angeles in the year 2050? No, it's Cambridge today, and as a result, parking is becoming a major concern.

Politicians, residents and businessmen have all identified the major problem with parking in Cambridge--there just isn't enough room.

"We just don't have enough available parking space no matter where you go," says Cambridge City Councillor William H. Walsh. "Kendall Square, Harvard Square, Porter Square--there just aren't enough spaces."

The basic problem, according to City Manager Robert W. Healy, is Cambridge's high auto density. "Well, you're looking at a city with more linear miles of automobiles than street," Healy says. "There is no simple solution."

"There are only six and one half square miles of land in Cambridge," Healy says. "Fresh Pond takes up about half a mile, and after you subtract Harvard and MIT's property that leaves about five miles of usable property for 100,000 people. With commuters it's maybe 150,000 to 200,000 on any given day."

The city attempts to control its parking problems by issuing permits to local residents, and people who do not hold permits are not allowed to park their cars anywhere in Cambridge for longer than 24 hours, Sunday excluded, says Cambridge Director of Traffic and Parking George Teso.

"The bulk of our tickets are issued in residential parking," Teso said. "If we didn't control parking we'd have one big parking lot like we used to. Everyone used to park in Cambridge and go into Boston."

While the permit system solves some of the parking problems, it makes life difficult for Harvard car owners, because most of them are not entitled to parking permits and do not heed Cambridge's elaborate parking rules.

"It was really a problem. I got to school in September, and there was no place to put my car. In three days, I got three tickets and towed once for a total of $75," says Cabot House resident Amy L. Sandler '90. "My car went home."

The University alleviates the parking problem somewhat for students by allowing students to park--for an annual fee--in Harvard-owned lots at the Business School, in covered parking in Peabody Terrace or on Soldiers Field Road.

In addition, the Harvard Parking Office allots use tutors parking permits for themselves and for students with special needs. "Each tutor is given three spaces which he designates for students with medical problems or who work late in the evening," says Robert K. Burns, manager of the Harvard Parking Office.

Sandler says she now has a permit allowing her to park in the lot next to Cabot because she has to bring herself and several others back from water polo practices across the Charles River late at night. And now that she has a permit, she says everyone should share the privilege. "All the streets around the Quad are [open to parking] by Cambridge permit only," Sandler says. "A good way to make the Quad more desirable would be to provide more parking."

But for students who do not have these special permits, parking on Harvard grounds is just as difficult as finding a spot in the rest of Cambridge. Although the City of Cambridge does not ticket on University property, the Harvard Police do. And owners of improperly parked cars are likely to find that their vehicles have been towed away.

Parking at Harvard, therefore, is always an adventure. Says Brad A. Guth '90, "I have a permit for the Business School lot, but sometimes I just get lazy and park on Dewolfe St."

And both Cambridge and Harvard are on the watch for slip-ups, Guth says. "I just paid off $120 to the City of Cambridge for mostly meter violations," he says. "They always snag you somehow."

For example, car owner Scott R. Panzer '88 says he learned to be wary last summer. "This summer was the first I had my car here. There was one spot in front of my apartment where trucks would park while the building next door" was under construction, he says.

The spot was temptingly open one evening and no "No Parking" signs were in evidence, he says. But when he parked in that space, he found the next morning that his car had been towed away.

However, City Councillor Francis H. Duehay '55 says that signs are "not at all obscure."

Cambridge's street cleaning and snow removal programs also present hazards for Cambridge car owners. Lori A. Barry '88 says that one morning, "I just forgot it was street cleaning. There are signs. The ticket was $15, but the towing charge was $40."

And Duehay says the street cleaning's benefits far outway the parking hassles it causes. "The street cleaning program is one of the most popular in the city," he says. "From April to November streets are cleaned once a month. Neighborhoods are much cleaner now. I think the problem is with people who are recent newcomers."

Snowstorms also create parking problems because the city tows away cars whenever a snow emergency is declared. But Duehay says the city does its best to warn car owners in advance. "There are signs on the street which say in the event of a snow emergency cars will be towed. We try to have a loudspeaker go around before the towing," Duehay says.

Rather than tow illegally parked cars itself, Cambridge contracts out the job to three towing companies--Pat's Tow Company, D & B Tow Company and Cambridge Tow--and retains 10 percent of the towing charges for its own coffers. Harvard also retains Pat's Tow as its towing company.

However some city officials say they are less than pleased with the towing companies' performance. City councillor David E. Sullivan says that he has received complaints about rudeness, in particular.

"The city ought to look into doing the towing itself," Sullivan said. "The main problem I have with private towing companies is that they're just so rude. I have received numerous complaints of cars being damaged."

Towing is not the only way Cambridge's parking situation generates money for the city. Parking fines will generate about $4.5 million this year for the City of Cambridge, Teso says. Collecting that revenue has become easier in recent years, because the city got the rights in 1982 to collect fines itself. Previously the city traffic courts had collected the fines, but the court had run into a huge backlog, according to Teso.

The city also gets parking revenue from the two garages and 12 surface lots it owns, "including 41 spaces under the Harvard [Motor Lodge] in Harvard Square," Teso says.

By contrast, the ticketing procedure used by the Harvard Police serves mainly to keep parking spots open for those who have permits, and the fines generate only $25,000 a year, Burns says.

The city's standard fine for illegal parking in Cambridge is $5 plus delinquent charges, towing fees, and storage fees, says Assistant Director of Parking Bernie A. Flynn. All parking meters in Cambridge charge 25 cents per 30 minutes of parking, with a fine of $5 for expired meters, he says.

If two hours pass after the car has been ticketed for an expired meter, and a meter maid notices that the car has not been moved, she will cite the owner for overtime parking.

Cambridge's ticketing system may generate money, but it often fails to discourage illegal parking, Flynn says. "In Harvard Square, it is probably more cost effective for a person to get a $5 ticket and hope that the officer doesn't return, than park in a private lot," he says.

Some car owners say they think the city is so anxious to make money off parking fines that they ticket cars prematurely. Wendy Chandler, a staff member at Harvard's Office of Government and Community Affairs, says she has seen metermaids flip meters to zero when they have only a few minutes left.

"They go in front of the meter and turn the dial around until it goes to zero. If it has two to five minutes on it they give it one good flip or more," Chandler says, adding "I don't look out for it. I just see it in passing or look out the window and see them doing it."

Flynn says, however, that the meter maids are just checking to see whether coins are jammed in the meters.

If today's parking hassles seem bad, tomorrow's problems may be horrendous, city officials say.

"You have a very large and growing industrial structure, many new buildings have been put up, many new jobs have been created, and many more people are coming in," says City Councillor Duehay.

And Teso warns that additional development might create more difficulties. "Parking is at a manageable level now," he says. "If development keeps going, then we'll have problems."

Cambridge is already the third most densely populated city in the U.S., after Manhattan and Newark, Teso says.

And "there are EPA restrictions which restrict the number of parking spaces which can be created," Healy says. "There have been additional spaces in Harvard Square created by private developers, but the clear fact is these lots cost money."

Underground

Given the EPA restrictions, City Councillor Walsh says he thinks underground parking could be a solution. "The land under the street belongs to the city, so I suppose we could get a private developer to do it and work out a deal to the benefit of the city and neighbors," Walsh says.

But Duehay disagrees with Walsh's proposal, calling it "futuristic" and too expensive. "I'm basically sort of against that. We'd have to have huge bond issues. We're restricted because of Proposition Two and a Half," Duehay says, referring to the Massachusetts state law which restricts the amount of revenue cities can raise and how they can do it.

Instead, "It seems more practical to require buildings to provide their own parking," Duehay says. "As far as transients, I would encourage them to use public transportation."

Other officials say that the best way to improve the parking situation is to curb the development which leads to the problem. "We can try to channel the development that hasn't yet occurred to other areas," Duehay says. "Many of the neighborhoods feel overwhelmed by the parking situation." He adds, "Maybe the thing to do is to impose a city-wide moratorium on new development until the city looks at the situation."

"The main long-term solution is to impose long term restrictions on development," fellow City Councillor Sullivan says. "There is no way we can add large numbers of new parking spaces."

But Healy says he opposes restricting industrial development in Cambridge for revenue reasons.

"You can't restrict development given the tax limitations created in Massachusetts," Healy says. "The only way cities can increase their budgets is through new development."

But Sullivan says he did not believe that development was needed to increase city revenues. "We ought to be moving away from the property tax anyway and get new revenues from the state," he says.

Sullivan also says public transportation is a solution. "I don't want to provide more parking, because more parking will cause more traffic," Sullivan says. "If people can't park, they won't drive into Cambridge, and I don't want more people driving into Cambridge. I want to encourage people to take public transit."

Steps have already been taken to make public transportation more attractive for commuters, Sullivan says. "The T will start running six-car trains on the Red Line this summer," Sullivan says. According to Sullivan, the T currently runs four-car trains on the Red Line.

Despite improved public transportation, most people say owning a car is worth the parking hassles.

"I drive to work at a lab at MIT, and there's plenty of parking there, but you have to get there at 7:30 a.m. if you want to park within half a mile," says Cabot House pre-med tutor Eugene H. Kaji '86. "If you wait until 9 [a.m.] you park a mile away. Yes, there is a problem, but having a car is still worth it," Kaji says.

And for some people, having a car fits their image. "My dad has this stereotypical image of Harvard guys, and he thinks I should be dating someone from Wellesley, and having a car is just fine with me," Panzer says. "If I did actually date someone from Wellesley, I'd definitely need the car."

Right now, however, Panzer says he only uses his car to go to his tutorial in the Medical School.