Currently, Watertown enforces a Winter overnight parking ban by prohibiting parking longer than 2 hours between 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM from December through April. In neighboring towns, snow removal has been resolved by issuing snow emergencies, so that the effort to relocate vehicles is concentrated on such days when the weather dictates it. We trust that similar solutions could be implemented in Watertown. 

The downside to a Winter parking ban (as opposed to alternative snow emergency bans) is that many residents find themselves unable to store their vehicles anywhere near their homes overnight. Difficult measures such as parking in a remote lot or sharing a single driveway with multiple vehicles per household must be endured. Parking far away can be especially disruptive for the elderly, disabled, any residents who may be unwell (whether from illness, surgery, etc.), tenants living in high-density dwellings with insufficient off-street parking, visitors from out of town, and the list goes on. There is also inherent economic inequality and unfairness in the policy, as it favors homeowners.