Section 35A. The division may authorize the removal to some convenient place, through the agency of a person in the employ of the division, or by an independent contractor selected on the basis of competitive bids, any vehicle, except a vehicle owned by the commonwealth or a political subdivision thereof or by the United States or an instrumentality thereof or registered by a member of a foreign diplomatic corps or by a foreign consular officer who is not a citizen of the United States and bearing a distinctive number plate or otherwise conspicuously marked as so owned or registered, parked or standing on any part of a parkway, boulevard or roadway in such a manner as to impede in any way the removal or plowing of snow or ice, or parked or standing in violation of any rule or regulation adopted under section 37 which prohibits the parking or standing of all vehicles on such parkway, boulevard or roadway or portion thereof at such time and which recites that whoever violates such regulation shall be liable to charge for the removal and storage of the vehicle as well as subject to punishment by fine. Liability may be imposed for the reasonable cost of such removal, and for the storage charges, if any, resulting therefrom, upon the owner of such vehicle.