City of Chicago Moving Cars

Few things can ruin your day as quickly as a possibility that your car has been stolen. Unless you are delinquent on your car’s payments, few people prepare themselves mentally for the possibility of their car being gone when they return from the store. The usual question one asks when the looking for their car:

• Is the car stolen ?
• Repossessed ?
• Towed for tickets ?
• Forgot where you parked ?

“Has the city moved my car and simply forgot to tell me?”

Residents of Chicago can now add, the city moved my car and simply forgot to tell me. Chicago will not notify residents that their car has been moved but expects them to take initiative to locate their vehicles. Often in panic some owners call 911 to report their vehicles stolen. The city does not notify owners because it doesn’t have their emails or phone numbers readily available and mailing a letter would take too long.

To enable emergency road work or maybe clear the street for a movie scene City of Chicago instruct tow truck drivers to move cars into the next available legal parking spaces. That space may be as little as a street away or as much as a mile at times. Just last year city of Chicago relocated 17,000 vehicles.

To deal with this issue a special hotline ‘311’ was setup up for drivers to get a status on their vehicles. Although the city’s policy of moving cars is implemented to minimize the inconvenience to vehicle owners, often due to the delay in logging cars, the city will not have answers for drivers looking for their cars. Some driver only located their vehicles after a week, not realizing that the city moved their cars, and after filing a theft claim with their insurance companies.

It is one thing to have your car moved due to a parking violation or ignoring a posted sign, however the situation is different when one parked correctly. Many owners are upset that vehicle are being moved without their permission.

88% of people say they would be upset if a city moved their car without asking  A recent poll by Autoblog asking, “Would you be upset if Chicago moved your car without asking?” got an overwhelming response with over 88% of participant responding that yes, they would be upset. Nevertheless the City of Chicago has not indicated that they are willing to change their policy and will continue to do things as is.

Sources: Auto Minded, Chicago Tribune, Autoblog Poll