5July 2018
Might want to be a tad more careful where you park in Boston
Might want to be a tad more careful where you park in Boston By adamg on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 9:33am
Parking-ticket fees have just gone up .
Special bonus: The city will no longer tow cars blocking street sweepers on streets with overnight sweeping. Instead, the owners of those cars will get $90 fines. People who park in no-parking zones on streets with daytime sweeping will get $40 fines – and might just have to pay even more, because towing of those cars will continue. Ad:
Broken Chair (left leg) $120 Broken Chair (right leg) $110 Furniture before 1983: $100 Furniture with elegance and design: $10 Working kitchen appliance:$80 Grandmother, child, pet or someone with sad face: $40 Pet supplies: $100 Anything from LL Bean: $500 Dead Animals: $20 What the hell is that: $300 All others: $400
owners of those cars will get $90.
Methinks you meant “owners of those cars will get $90 tickets .”
Ouch. I wonder if that will include outer neighborhood side streets where, wrt street cleaning, it’s been passingly rare for cars to be towed or ticketed up to now. By anon on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 10:21am
Has anyone pointed out that street cleaning in central neighborhoods every single night of the week from 2:01 am to 7 am is ridiculous? Why not just do it once a week on each side, so people can park overnight when the T isn’t running, or do early-morning business in the city? By Will LaTulippe on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 1:06pm
What happens if you want to have sex with a girl in Beacon Hill or Back Bay and sleep over? By anon on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 3:29pm
Or if there’s an urgent problem with a server at 3 am, and you have to drive to the office to fix it. By Ari O on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 10:23am
OH NOES people who are able to pass a driving test and pay for a car and insurance and gas and maintenance will now be CHARGED more by the GOVERNMENT when they BREAK THE LAW by not being able to FOLLOW DIRECTIONS which are posted on signs. THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
Who know what’s next: the city may try to enforce speeding violations? The horrors! By spin_o_rama on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 11:00am
If you break the law, you get fined in some cases. Its not a tax because its pretty simple to avoid, just don’t break the law and you don’t have to worry about a fine.
But then again, the major issue is BPD/BTD don’t have the best track record when it comes to enforcing laws that keep our roads safe. I’d love to see a point where BPD is even ticketing cyclists that break the law, all that together would make our streets safer for all.
Instead, here we are arguing that people who illegally park are being persecuted by the city government, Mon, 07/02/2018 – 11:04am
Because there’s never anything confusing or unfair about parking rules or enforcement.
For example, I’ve never gotten a straight answer about what these signs mean on Saturday and Monday morning. Or how a guest is supposed to get any sleep when they have to move their car every 2 hours all night. https://goo.gl/maps/bqJTL5Zit8k By anon on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 3:34pm
Yeah, if everyone else just left their cars at home, think of how little traffic you would have to deal with, and how easy it would be to park when you got there.
This sounds like a great recipe for an equitable and convenient transportation system.
Wait, where’s the transit improvement? Well, this plan has the same exact transit improvements that were provided when Southie got resident parking: None. By anon on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 3:36pm
This is the same exact transit improvement plan that is being provided along with these increased parking fines. By Kinopio on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 11:59am
Won’t someone think about the tourists who are too lazy to take the T and too cheap to pay for parking!?!
… park somewhere outside the city and take the T into the city.
Done this with NYC several times. By JPNative617 on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 8:04pm
Do you park in Westchester and then pay for the Metro-North and MTA? Or do you pay to cross the GW or Tappan Zee and then pay for NJ transit and then pay for MTA? Do you park illegally in residentially or street cleaning signed Riverdale (if you take the HH Parkway) and then take the 1 train over an hour into the city? Do you leave your car on the east side of the Bronx (if you take 95) and the take an MTA bus to to the 6 for over an hour?
Seriously, you might be able to spin this ball of yarn to people who don’t know NYC, but this claim is ridiculous. The options are not cheaper than parking in Manhattan, and even if you saved a few bucks, why go through the aggravation of it all? By SwirlyGrrl on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 8:53pm
There are other options that don’t involve any of those. You clearly haven’t used the internet to try this in eons.
I won’t list them here as they are numerous and variable, but it doesn’t involve hours on trains … and it really depends on where in the city you intend to end up and where you are coming from.
Let me explain how this is done for those who know that you can use the internet to find parking: you go online and search for one of the parking sites that covers the area where you wish to ditch the car. Then you look into which of the possibilities might offer a weekend or multi-overnight rate.
It ain’t the 1980s when you took your chances with street parking. By JPNative617 on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 9:12pm
“I won’t list them here as they are numerous and variable, but it doesn’t involve hours on trains … and it really depends on where in the city you intend to end up and where you are coming from.”
i.e. I lied and was called out on my bullshit.
Those are literally the only ways into Manhattan from Boston via public transportation, not even counting CT. You said you park outside the city and take the subway in because it’s cheaper and that just isn’t true.
Tell me the last time you went to Manhattan, what neighborhood you stayed, where you parked outside the city, what train you took not using those options and the total cost. i’ll find you a garage that’s cheaper and more cost efficient. By Ari O on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 10:20pm
Was going to NYC for a day on the weekend. Rather than drive to the City, pay the tolls and deal with the traffic (yes, there’s even traffic there on weekends) I drove to Darien, right off the highway, paid nothing to park in a big commuter lot. Caught an express train to the City, got off at 125th 50ish minutes later, and took an M60 over to meet friends in Queens. Later I took the N back downtown to catch the train back up from GCT.
But, yes, let me know about the Midtown garage which is cheaper.
(FWIW, with multiple people you can usually find a space on the UES/UWS and take the subway from there.) By SwirlyGrrl on Tue, 07/03/2018 – 2:33am
If you have multiple people, it can be cheaper to drive in and then bury the car for the duration. Again, all it takes is a bit of planning and internet use.
My son and his friends have done this several times – they use the internet to find a garage or lot in the neighborhood they plan to stay in that had a weekend or multi-day rate, and used transit to get to places in Manhattan, to Yankee Stadium, etc.
I have also done similar in Montreal, ditching the car for $30 CD for 72 hours and using the bikes for a long weekend stay.
Looks like JPNative needs to learn some computer skillz. By Waquiot on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 3:14pm
And a visitor gets a ticket, the best thing would be to challenge the ticket. I’d say the same if the fine were $10 or $100.
Otherwise, the best thing is to obey the signs or other markings.
The fine amounts are to discourage illegal parking. Some illegal parking involves safety issues. Other illegal parking involves quality of life issues (resident parking, two hour parking limits in business districts.) When the fine amounts are too low, it’s more worth while to get a ticket than to park in a lot or garage. By Waquiot on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 7:39pm
Just follow the rules between Monday and Friday. Any tickets outside of those times should be thrown out. By Will LaTulippe on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 12:25pm
But it’s still regressive. The fine is $40 whether you make $26,000 a year or $260,000 a year.
Why is the fine increasing? $25 to $40 is a 60% increase. Do you believe in your heart of hearts that government services will improve by 60 percent?
Honestly astonishing to me the number of people who blithely accept that their government at any level will spend their forcefully taken money wisely and efficiently despite repeated examples to the contrary. By anon on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 1:52pm
they charge fines as a deterrent, the income the city gets from it is aside the fact. $25 dollars has been shown not to be a great deterrent, because people still do the thing, so they’re increasing the dollar amount. plenty of people who wouldn’t blink at $25 may think twice about losing 40.
that said, I agree its regressive, and these kind of fines are just the cost of doing business for the rich and entitled. the fine should really be some kind of percentage point, the way speeding tickets in sweden are. By spin_o_rama on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 4:59pm
You choose to park you vehicles in a way that breaks the law, you pay the fine. Choose to speed or run a red light, same deal. If you want to take your own advice, vote in someone to the city council that supports your idea here.
As for loaded question you setup, I’m not answering that. Instead, refer to the Citys announcements about these increases and how the additional revenue will be used for further parking enforcement, bus lanes and other transit efforts. I do believe in my heart of hearts this will improve transit in the city, with BTD/BPD enforcing the laws being a part of that.
Honestly its amazing to see the number of libertarians that blithely hand wave away fines for breaking the law as the big evil government forcefully taking money from them. Something something personal responsibility right?
Until government made it one.
Go look up “voluntary” again.
Parking your car is voluntary.
Being responsible for where you store your vehicle is not voluntary. By Kinopio on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 12:03pm
Roads cost money. Paving, cleaning, plowing etc. costs the city tens of millions of dollars per year. Why should people without cars subsidize people who chose to drive in a city? Why shouldn’t drivers who break the law pony up and pay for the roads they use? Parking on city streets is a privilege, not a right. Mon, 07/02/2018 – 12:30pm
“Roads”, or “Ayn Rand?” I really need to keep score.
Wish I could have taken a picture of College St. in BVT yesterday, or hell, of I-89 North between Richmond and Williston. You can literally see grooves in the right lane of the latter, and this is in a state that taxes you 6.8% if you make $40,000 (3.55% below $37,900).
I’m done taking you seriously if you insist again that public money pays for road maintenance. Frickin’ look at the actual roads. By boo_urns on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 2:02pm
Yes, public money does go into roadway maintenance. Not sure if this model is still used, but it’s divided up in a few ways. At the district level for State/MassDOT (there are 6), and then there are two other funds, the Western Turnpike (WTP) and the Metropolitan Highway System (MHS). Money is also funded federally through the Federal Highway Administration (FWHA) and asset management and maintenance programs needs to meet MAP21 standards to get funding through that, too.
In a few less words, you have no idea what you’re talking about. Mon, 07/02/2018 – 2:15pm
A (expletive) liar?
Yes, I know that road repair is literally funded publicly. For Chrissakes. If that’s the case, then why have I seen this aforementioned groove for several years now?
Parse the difference between “public money is allocated for road maintenance” and “public money is actually spent on tangible road maintenance” and then rejoin the discussion. Mon, 07/02/2018 – 2:17pm
You can literally see grooves in the right lane of the latter
The rumble strip is not in the right lane, or in any lane. These are grooves worn into the road by cars driving over them repeatedly. By boo_urns on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 2:19pm
Clearly it’s not a priority for Vermont. Most things in the public sector get addressed because some concerned citizen speaks up. Not sure how you’d go about doing it in Vermont since we’re residents of MA, but I’d hardly start the tantrum you’re throwing over it. That’s just me, though. By IRegistered on Mon, 07/02/2018 – 5:13pm
You were caught red handed lying about speeding just the other day. You also stated that we shouldn’t take your posts on here seriously or factually.
So you aren’t serious about your criticisms about government?
So you aren’t factual that a road was torn up in Vermont? Maybe it’s smooth as a baby’s butt on that road knowing your credibility to report factually.
And about that 6.8% number. Is that just what you pay for roads or is that for everything? If the latter, than it’s dishonest to say “I’M PAYING 6.8% FOR ROADS.” You should only be counting the percentage they allocate for roads.
What is that number for you, by the way? How much do you pay a month in dollars that’s going to roads? You were able to drive over 200 miles before you found a road to complain about. I’d call that a good batting average and a good bargain!
If the roads are so bad, how are you able to go 20 over the speed limit on the highway and then glide over to cut off a cop?
You get what you pay for.