It’s pretty. It’s friendly. It’s clean and easy to navigate. And while those of us with tickets will still find ourselves unhappily clicking through the pages of the City’s new Traffic and Parking Department Website, at least the user-experience will be less painful.
This week, this City launched www.parksomerville.com. While the name may conjure up thoughts of picnics and ball fields, the new site is an online portal to take care of most parking needs.
Residents can pay tickets (with Visa or MasterCard), order guest or party permits and contest parking violations without ever leaving home. Businesses can download commercial permit requests. Detailed information of parking regulations from meter operation times to snow emergencies are also presented. And links to MBTA bus updates or traffic advisories for vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians are also offered.
The site even explains itself with this interesting tidbit:
“Somerville is one of the most densely populated cities in all of New England. In fact, today, Somerville has more than 11,600 registered vehicles per square mile, roughly 7,600 more cars per square mile than Boston and almost 3,600 more than Cambridge. This works out to roughly one vehicle for every 1.6 residents in Somerville.
So it goes without saying that that we take our traffic and parking polices seriously….”
Next up: Meters that take credit cards
Acting Traffic and Parking Director Matthew Dias, who joined the department in September, has more changes in the works in addition to the new website:
"This website will, I hope, be a valuable tool for our constituents when conducting business with this Department, as well as help to alleviate any confusion regarding our policies and regulations,” said Dias via a statement. “Further, we want residents to know that we are soliciting feedback about the website, with the goal of providing additional improvements, such as online permitting, over the course of the next year."
Offer your feedback
To provide feedback on the new site, please e-mail traffic@somervillema.gov, or for general information on Traffic and Parking regulations and procedures, please call 311.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
