How Many Cars Were Towed in Somerville Last Night?

About 200 of you may have woken up this morning to find six or seven inches of snow on the ground and that your car had been towed.

That—200—is about how many cars were towed Monday night and early Tuesday morning due to the snow emergency in Somerville, according to Jackie Rossetti, a spokesperson for the city of Somerville.

That number "might be slightly higher" than with most snow emergencies, but it's not "abnormal," Rossetti said. She said most snow emergencies lead to the city towing between 100 and 200 cars.

"Our hope is not to tow that many," she said.

When Somerville declares a snow emergency, as it did Monday night, residents have four hours to move their cars from even-numbered sides of the street to odd-numbered sides or into snow-emergency parking lots. Cars parked on even-numbered sides of the street get ticketed and towed.

Cars towed during a snow emergency face a $100 ticket.

Monday night brought the fifth snow storm to Somerville in a five-and-a-half week period, which began Feb. 8 and 9 with an historic blizzard. The city has seen three snow emergencies during that period, and one storm, on March 8, brought enough snow that it could have been a snow emergency, though it wasn't.

Perhaps snow fatigue is one reason a slightly higher number of cars were towed Monday and Tuesday than during previous storms. "Some people maybe aren't as attuned to the possibility of a snow emergency" as they usually are, Rossetti suggested. She noted the city communiticated news of the snow emergency in its usual method.