William Roberts It’s a head-scratcher all right. Search the official city directory and its state and federal counterparts and try to find what AWM stands for. No Standing signs in Lower Manhattan prohibit standing at a few locations on weekdays except for authorized vehicles. The only clue to exactly who is authorized are the letters AWM.
Turns out, AWM doesn’t stand for anything at all. The letters are a figment of the imagination of Samuel I. Schwartz, a former traffic commissioner. In the 1980s, he was asked to reserve spaces for certain secretive federal agencies, which did not want to advertise their presence or have their vehicles identified. So he made up the AWM designation, which the agencies and, presumably, traffic enforcement agents, all wink at.
“I just randomly picked the letters and issued AWM permits,†he recalled.
