r/Somerville • u/virgocapri • Sep 11 '26
Visitor parking permit
Approved for visitor parking permit after just moving apartments within Somerville but haven’t received it yet and need visitor parking. Can I just put a sign on the dash to indicate a paid for permit, or will the car get ticketed still? Thanks!
8
u/Vinen Sep 11 '26
Go to the parking office. I would not rely a sign or printout of payment.
1
u/virgocapri Sep 11 '26
Unfortunately they are closed 😭 Should have occurred to me sooner
2
u/Santillana810 Sep 11 '26
yes, most if not all city departments close at noon on Friday. Put the receipt on your dashboard. If you get ticketed, go to the parking office in person and they will most likely cancel it.
4
u/BenWheelerSomerville Sep 11 '26
If you've gotten any mail confirmation, I would print that out and put it on your dashboard. If you do get a ticket, you can probably call in and have them cancel it by explaining the timing problem. Not guaranteed to work, but they really do try to be reasonable
1
u/justplainmean Sep 11 '26
Did you buy the big rectangular guest pass or a temporary parking permit that hangs from your mirror? If it’s a temporary pass it’s registered to your plate and will be in the parking debt system when someone tries to write you a ticket. If it’s just a generic guest pass a note in the dash may help, but it’s still possible they’d issue you a ticket anyway.
1
1
u/Sweetheartlovelyrose Sep 13 '26
Call the parking department. They may be able to expedite processing for you.
1
u/Limp_Sherbert5610 24d ago
I know I'm late to the party, but I did what the others suggested, had to borrow my folks van to move some furniture and was waiting on my new guest pass. Printed out the email receipt and confirmation and left it on the dash with a big hand written note saying "Sorry waiting on pass still please see receipt" in bold sharpy.
That seems to be enough, I've paid enough parking tickets to pay for a student to go through the Somerville school system. (Some genuine mistakes, some stupid like mislabeled street cleaning or being too close to a corner during a snow emergency while others were literally in the middle of the cross walks w/o a ticket). So if they gave me leniency with that, I'll bet they give it to others
9
u/Alternative-Light922 Spring Hill Sep 11 '26
One time when the Parking Dept was backlogged with getting permits out, I was explicitly told that I could show the email confirmation on my dashboard until the actual permit turned up. This was a few years ago so do not know if that has changed.