Two laws passed by the Syracuse Common Council on Tuesday come as much needed reforms for the car-cluttered streets surrounding Syracuse University's campus.
One law - effective Jan. 1, 2008, for the entire city of Syracuse - established that any car with three or more outstanding parking tickets will be booted (a lock is placed on the tire so the car cannot move) if police identify the vehicle for another parking violation.
In order to get the boot off, drivers need to pay the fines owed to the city of Syracuse and then call an 800 number for Paylock, the private company in charge of providing car boots to the city. After drivers pay $50 boot fees to Paylock, they receive a touch pad code to unlock the boot, which can then be returned to the city.
The other law, which only applies to SU's off-campus neighborhood area, requires future rental properties to provide one off-street parking space for every bedroom. The law does not affect current rental properties, and various Syracuse media news reports did not identify when the law will be enacted.
Both policies should limit the numbers of cars parking curbside around SU, which will improve the ease of travel around campus and the city.
Too often, parked cars line both sides of streets adjacent to campus. Drivers must be alert to open car doors or cars pulling away from the curb on a regular basis. Likewise, right-of-way negotiations are regular occurrences for cars coming in opposite directions on two-way roads.
Cluttered streets become particularly problematic in the winter. During the days when snow and slush make driving not only difficult but dangerous, drivers should not need to worry about the endless lines of vehicles alongside the road in addition to those actually traveling.
The city of Syracuse is completely justified with its three-tickets-and-a-boot law. Syracuse lacks nearly $5 million in parking ticket fines, which indicates that writing tickets fails to scare violators into paying for their mistakes. Drivers that habitually park illegally need a real wake up call. Rendering cars immobile will provide a more immediate - and effective - message for drivers parked on the wrong side of the road.
Requiring an off-street parking space for each bedroom in a house may appear to be more of a threat to students than the boot law. The parking space law provides fewer incentives for future home owners to put their property on the market for rental.
However, the fundamental purpose of a house is to offer effective shelter for people and their property, which includes vehicles. If a house has five bedrooms but a driveway that only fits three cars, then two residents' cars could arguably be in danger by being parked on the street.
The onus of dealing with the restriction of parking in off-campus housing lots rests with upperclassmen. Students can either choose to live off-campus and share cars (if there are more housemates than parking spaces), or they can live in SU housing during junior and senior year.
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