D ear Dr. Gridlock:
Eye Street NW is clogged with cars heading west every evening rush-hour period. And every evening, there is a FedEx truck parked in the left lane of the 1600 block (it's a one-way street) that backs up traffic for blocks.
The D.C. police don't seem to care. Is there anything that can be done about it?
I sympathize with the courier companies. They have a job to do. They could, however, park in an alley or at least wait until after rush hours.
Rob Esmond
Vienna
I get these kinds of letters every week and must conclude that nobody cares about illegally parked vehicles obstructing "rush" hour traffic in Washington.
FedEx, the U.S. Postal Service, UPS -- they all rob us of traffic lanes, and no one cares. Not the D.C. police, the D.C. Department of Public Works parking control aides or anyone in the two dozen law enforcement agencies empowered to write parking tickets. And not in the business community, either.
The evidence of this is that you are seeing these delivery trucks in the same place every night blocking traffic. They are hardly going to get out of the way if they don't have to. They are on a tight schedule, and after all, we are just Little People trying to get home.
Mayor Anthony A. Williams, who travels one-third of the year, need only travel as far as the 1600 block of I Street NW to see that there is a problem needing his attention.
The city used to have a fleet of tow trucks to haul coupes and sedans away. A patrolman would walk by and slap a yellow "Tow" sticker on the back windshield, and your vehicle would be removed. You would have to take a taxi to the city's dreaded impound lot in Northeast Washington and pay a big fine.
I once saw an industrial-size police tow truck haul away a fully-loaded Perrier water truck in Manhattan. The truck was illegally parked, blocking a lane of traffic. Has anyone here ever seen a FedEx truck towed?
This is not just a problem in the 1600 block of I Street; you tell me it's on 23rd Street NW, 17th Street, 18th Street, 19th Street, 20th Street, M Street, Wisconsin and Massachusetts avenues and many others.
My suggestion: Slap a yellow "Tow" sticker on these delivery trucks and haul them off to Northeast. That should make an impression on scofflaw drivers.
