It's that time of year again: The city of Columbus begins street sweeping today. This means if you are not careful where you park, you could end up being towed at your own expense.
Beginning today, the streets in the University District will be swept every month on the second Thursday and second Friday through the month of October.
"In general, all of the arterial streets in the University District and all of the residential streets in the predominantly student neighborhood east of High Street, which are between East 11th and East Norwich, are swept," said Stephen Sterrett of Campus Partners.
Sterrett added that all streets affected by street sweeping are posted with permanent metal signs that indicate when the street sweeps will occur.
Even with the signs, many students fail to move their vehicles and end up feeling the frustration and financial strain of having their vehicles towed.
"I have been towed twice on Summit. I don't move my car for a couple of days and end up forgetting about it. I ended up having to pay $120 each time to get it back [from the impound]," said Amber McComas, a fourth-year in international studies.
Several groups have formed to combat the towing by helping people remember street sweeping days.
Charles Robol, an OSU graduate, started the Facebook group "Poor College Students Against Predatory Towing Procedures," which now has about 1,300 members. He is now partnering with the student groups Free Geeks and Columbus Art Network to work on a new plan that will place fliers on vehicles the day of sweeping to remind people they need to move.
"The streets do need to be swept, but the manner in which cars are towed is predatory," Robol said.
The Web site antitow.com is an initiative started by two former OSU students that sends free text message reminders to people the day before, and of, street sweeping.
"We started the service last year because we were tired of being towed," said Vitaliy Levit, co-founder of the Web site. "We thought there must be some clever way we can solve this."
Sterrett said that although it does cause many to be towed, street sweeping is a necessary task.
"The city sweeps the streets to remove leaves, litter and dirt from the curbs, so they don't wash into the sewer system. The street sweeping also improves the appearance of the area and removes broken glass and other materials from the roadway to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety," he said. "It is unfortunate that parked vehicles must be towed, but without towing, the crowded parking situation in the University District would prevent any street sweeping."
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