PARKING PHILOSOPHY

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

It occurs to me that some clarification is in order regarding the recent University policy of ticketing student cars on the Cambridge streets.

Commencing with the issuing of tickets to all-night parkers on the streets adjoining the houses, the University Police Department has lately broadened its sphere of activity to include streets in the Yard area in what would appear to be a campaign to enforce upon students a scrupulous regard for Cambridge parking regulations. It is a curious fact, however, that the professed philosophy, as explained by the Police to this student, behind this action is not an increased reverence for law but rather a benign desire to protect the students themselves from the towing charges of the Cambridge Police. Yet anyone taking the trouble to discover the faces will find that towing, under the present law, is directed only toward perpetual out of state violators who torn-up or do not return tickets and never against either Massachusetts registered cars (which category includes a large number of students) or out of state cars whose owners do return their tickets. What "protection" these University tickets conceivably do offer--against the regular Cambridge parking fines--take the form of assessing fines which are consistently higher that these which they are designed to "protect."

In view of this evidence, it would appear extremely doubtful that the University policy as it now stands is in the interest of the majority of students. If the present ticketing plan is to continue, the reasons for it should be revealed. It should not be allowed to masquerade behind a false statement of motives. Ralph W. Walton, Jr., '53