New Bedford Issued $27,500 in Parking Ban Fines on Monday

NEW BEDFORD — The snow may have washed away, but the fines for violating the city’s parking ban on Monday still remain.

The New Bedford Police Department issued 550 tickets on Monday during the hours of the parking ban, totaling $27,500 in fines. The police say no vehicles were towed as a result of the ban.

In anticipation of a storm that was expected to bring plowable snow by late morning or early afternoon, the City of New Bedford put a parking ban into effect at 8 a.m. Monday morning, which was announced to the public Sunday evening. With the storm bringing little to no snow accumulation before changing over to rain, the parking ban was rescinded at 5 p.m. Monday.

Jonathan Carvalho, Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Jon Mitchell and Public Information Officer for the City of New Bedford, said Monday’s parking ban began at 8 a.m. due to forecasts of up to 12 inches of snow in Greater New Bedford.

“Parking bans are implemented only when significant snowfall is predicted, and it is important that residents comply so that city streets can be cleared for safe driving and to ensure emergency vehicles can respond despite hazardous driving conditions,” Carvalho said.

Despite calls by residents on social media and the WBSM airwaves for those 550 tickets to be forgiven since plows never actually needed to come down the road, the fines will stand, since residents were informed of the ban ahead of time and had time to comply.

“The City uses various means to inform residents of parking bans, including social media posts and alerting local media to the bans, including WBSM, which reported on the ban,” Carvalho said.

Carvalho noted that this year, the City has also begun using its NB Alert text messaging system to update residents on snow parking bans. Any resident who wants to sign up can visit NBAlert.com to be added to the list. Carvalho said almost a thousand residents have signed up to receive the texts so far.