Monterey braces for parking nightmares during car week

City parking enforcers in Monterey say they are spending much of their time helping tourists get to the car events rather than writing them up for being somewhere they shouldn’t.

During Car Week it seems like an endless line of cars on Del Monte Avenue and often the majority of the drivers don’t have a clue where they are going, that’s why parking enforcement officials say they are there to help.

“More signage, our officers are trying to get people to the right places. We probably write less, normal citations than a regular busy summer week,” said parking superintendent Wayne Dalton.

Dalton says they give out on an average a thousand tickets per week, during Car Week it is half that. Instead, the focus is working with police officers to alleviate traffic to make the roads less dangerous.

“There are a lot of out of town guests here, which is great but we want to make sure people are driving and having a little extra patience because sometimes when people aren’t from here, they don’t know exactly where they’re going,” said Police Chief Dave Hober, he’s right given the numbers that suggest 57% of drivers during Car Week are from outside Monterey County.

Parking staff have posted signs guiding cars to the closest lots and some lots offer free one hour parking specifically for Car Week.

“We would hope there wouldn’t be the accidents but certainly when there are more people and there’s more traffic congestion that can lead to accidents and that’s why we ask people to pay attention when they’re driving,” Hober says.

“We’re here to enforce the parking rules for the city, but we’re also here as ambassadors. I mean especially the waterfront areas. You got a lot of people not sure where they are going so our officers are really good at directing traffic,” explained Dalton.