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Citizen complaint of the day: Indecent honking
By adamg on Thu, 09/07/2017 - 12:17pm
An annoyed citizen files a complaint about a remarkably stupid, persistent truck driver at the corner of Anderson and Myrtle on Beacon Hill this morning:
A big truck keeps honking indecently at an abandoned vehicle parked on the street. Neighbors have asked the driver of the big truck to stop honking and go around the abandoned car, but he is not. It's very disruptive in the neighborhood
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Comments
indecent
Clearly the big truck wants to do sex with the abandoned vehicle.
a remarkably stupid, persistent truck driver?
ive never met the truck driver so I don't know that he or she is stupind but these are not very wide streets. could the truck get around the car? who abandoned the vehicle? sometimes trucks cant move from the middle of a street because of height restrictions and obstacles. do you really think the truck driver wanted to sit there beeping? file a complaint against your selfish neighbor who left his or her car abandoned in a busy intersection.
where do you live or work
I'll go get a horn and blast it over and over and over again. See how you like that.
If nobody was coming out, then it wasn't going to happen. The driver was rude and his honking unnecessary - in fact, such honking is actually ILLEGAL because it is so unnecessary. Horns are for alerting other motorists of imminent collisions. Period.
Nobody made the driver honk. He is solely responsible for his futile and extremely rude behavior.
honking truck driver
should he have left his truck and started ringing doorbells? posted flyers? maybe he should have filed a 311 report? is it rude to leave your car in the middle of a busy intersection in one of the most congested parts of the city? can you imagine if he tried to go around the abandoned vehicle, veered into the bike lane and struck a cyclist?
"Abandoned"
See, when I read abandoned, I thought left as unwanted, and probably stolen. Not carelessly parked by a resident who might respond to incessant (or indecent) honking.
The truck driver should call the cops and ask for the car to be towed.
Sitting there honking the
Sitting there honking the horn at an abandoned car accomplishes nothing other than pissing people off. No one has the right to create that level of noise. That is something a little spoiled brat toddler would do. Adults who behave like that should be ticketed. And anyone who drives a big truck in that part of Beacon Hill is an idiot. Those streets were designed for people and horses.
I take it you've never met a
I take it you've never met a competently surly Teamster in their professional capacity. You'll get your beeping and like it, or else, cause whachdagonnadoaboutit bub?
If a tree had fallen across
If a tree had fallen across the road, do you suppose this truck driver would have sat there honking at it, or done the sensible thing and backed up and taken a different route?
Well!
I never!
So hard to get good help these days!
People who honk car horns are
People who honk car horns are assholes. I don't care what the situation is. Imagine if pedestrians screamed "MOOOOOVE!!!" for 5 seconds every time someone in front of them wasn't walking their desired speed. Pedestrians don't do that because they aren't loud, lazy, entitled pieces of garbage like this truck driver or anyone else who honks their car horn.
While I 1000% agree...
... this is one of those "sometimes it happens in cities" kinda things.
To your point, though, unless someone is honking to prevent an accident-- like my sister did last week when the undoubtedly very nice, possibly deaf, old couple in a Prius nearly backed into her car as she laid on the horn like a sex starved elephant-- honking is usually a selfish, stupid act of venting that will get zero results.
Also, I wish folks would stop setting car alarms overnight in Boston. I've ranted about this elsewhere, but seriously, if you're not close enough to check on your car when the alarm goes off, then don't expect your neighbors to do it for you.
But the occasional asshole laying on a horn or car alarm going off at 2 AM is to be expected.
I know that at least in some
I know that at least in some cities, you can call the police and have them tow away vehicles that are sounding their alarms if no one is attending to them. :-)
Move!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfKL6RM8hsY
Horn
You're the second vehicle at a stop light, need to make a left hand turn so the green arrow is short.....the driver in front of you has their head down (looking at phone) after the light turns green and he isn't moving. Do you A) honk the horn or B) be all happy and do nothing and sit at the red light a second cycle?
I'd give as short a toot as
I'd give as short a toot as possible. Especially if any residences were nearby.
A street is blocked by an un-tended motor vehicle,
You honk the horn to GET THE ATTENTION OF THE OWNER/OPERATOR, who, presumably,is near by and, will hear the honking, and act accordingly. It is impractical for a operator of a motor vehicle, especially a truck, to get out of his/her vehicle and go door to door, which is something done as a last resort.
Horns are also used to warn others a machine weighing tons is in motion, can't stop on a dime, and.to please pay attention and act accordingly.
Some people need to grow up. Your comfortable 1st world existance is relient on trucks and other motor vehicles moving people and things, delivering shipments of goods, etc.
Some people need to read more carefully
This wasn't just one or two beeps ...
Ummm... Don't illegally park?
Ummm... Don't illegally park?
Ummm... who gave the truck
Ummm... who gave the truck driver the right to harrass residents because some Ahole illegally parked?
So of the hundreds of people annoyed by the repeated honking...
Maybe, just maybe, we'll target the random jerk who abandoned the car? That makes a ton of sense.
911, not 311
If you have a 'live' situation like that, calling 9-1-1 is your better option. Cops can either flag the abandoned vehicle and get it towed, or chastise your offending driver...
Main police number, not 911
911 is for emergencies. It should not be used for situations like this. Everyone should have the phone numbers for their local police departments (both work and home locations) in their phone contacts list.
Last I knew, 911 and the
Last I knew, 911 and the nonemergency number were answered by the same dispatch center and same people.
The main difference is that if you have a nonemergency situation, then the first thing you should say to the operator is that it's a nonemergency, so they know to put you on hold if another call comes in or is progress.
Wrong. Every time I have
Wrong. Every time I have tried to call the local number to report something live but not emergent - abandoned car, sketchy solicitors, etc - they tell me to call 911. That's how they track needs.
Your local police department
Your local police department cannot dispatch officers to the truck driver - only 911 can. So your suggestion is useless. All they will do is tell you to call 911.
that's not true in Boston -- 911 is the # to call
City of Boston + the Police are pretty clear on this point -- use 911 for anything you want police involvement in. They triage on their end. Don't call the local station. Calling the local station is inefficient, they aren't staffed to handle it and they doesn't route requests this way.
The only distinction in Boston is along the lines of "911 if want police involvement now or soon" vs "311 for anything else, and generally not for police issues".
Varies by jurisdiction
Unfortunately this varies by jurisdiction. It would be great if there was consistency, but in some jurisdictions you will be told to hang up and call 911. If you say "but it's not an emergency" you will get told it doesn't matter, if it involves the police, call 911. This difference between jurisdictions, and the potentially high stakes, have led to some wonderfully pointless flame wars where people shout their local truth at each other while refusing to accept it might be different somewhere else.
When DC switched to "only use 911", the theory was that it would *reduce* calls answered by dispatchers, since before one incident could generate multiple calls - one to 311, and then another to 911.
Not what I've been told by BPD
My BPD neighborhood liaison has told us to use 911 for every single police issue so it is catalogued properly. "Even non-emergencies?" we all asked incredulously. "Yes; always."
Yes.
Yes.
I live in Boston and was told the same by our community policing liaison and someone at our Area station.
here's the thing. . .
If you replace that delivery truck with a fire truck trying to get to a burning home it's a legit emergency. . . if one can't get by then neither can the other so it seems like calling 911 is the proper response.
For the record, like Rob O., I've also been told by BPD officers that 911 is for all police issues. It helps them to have a single point of contact to keep track of BPD calls.
A fire truck would ram
A fire truck would ram through and we'd all cheer it for doing so. A delivery truck would not get the same reception.
Yes, the truck driver is out
Yes, the truck driver is out of line.
Mostly, I'm wondering - If the complainant knows the vehicle is abandoned, why didn't they file a 311 on that?
They may have a higher tolerance for abandoned cars over truck horns, but just wait until a fire truck can't make the turn - THEN they'll see the light.
Either that or they'll start moaning when their deliveries aren't on time because commercial vehicles are restricted to certain spots, they'll get ticketed anyplace else, and someone has blocked the one commercial/loading spot near this corner.
Oh - Swirly?
Horns are for alerting other motorists of imminent collisions. Period.
I really don't want to open a branch tunnel to this musty old rabbit hole, but bad statements like that need to be corrected. When talking about horns (and bells and whistles) - they are primarily for alerting other motorists and bicyclists and pedestrians and any other bystander along the way of imminent collision.
There actually are certain other circumstances when a very short beep is permissible (person at head of the line, probably on their phone, oblivious to light having turned green 5 -10 seconds ago (not 0.05 seconds)) or useful to others (like when a blind person is preparing to cross a street and is listening for traffic).
They *did* file a complaint about the abandoned car:
The very first sentence of the complaint as quoted by Adam mentions the abandoned vehicle as the root cause, with the honking as the primary symptom.
Yes, the heading on the 311
Yes, the heading on the 311 page indicates they did select the "abandoned vehicle".
Unfortunately, all they did was complain about the noise.
Other than the general area, they didn't bother to describe the car or where it is or put a photo (they were posting from their iPhone), which certainly slows down the prospect of it getting removed quickly.
Report the vehicle as abandoned
Quincy impressed me by disappearing the abandoned vehicle i reported within 12 hours of my reporting it.
just the one honker?
I'm so envious!
try the corner of Westland Ave and The Fenway any day of the week from 7-9AM or from 3:30-7pm
In Paris, it's illegal to
In Paris, it's illegal to honk except in an emergency. Just like it is here, except they enforce it strictly. So while there's a lot of traffic, it's not very noisy.
Abandoned car or illegally parked? Unnecessary use of horn?
Was the car abandoned for 72 hours? If so, BPD/BTD should send a tow. Or did someone just run in for two minutes to deliver or collect something? Different story. As Swirly posted, unnecessary noise (including horn, straight pipes, no muffler etc.) is punishable with a civil citation (ticket) and fine. In the 80's when scrap had little value, cars were abandoned everywhere, hence the abandonment of a motor vehicle law carries some stiff penalties and license suspensions.
311 is for things that should
311 is for things that should be fixed in a few days. If a car is blocking the street, or someone is making a lot of noise, it's better to call the police directly.
Ok, so someone (or their
Ok, so someone (or their autocorrect) confused "indecently" and "incessantly". Call the Internet funny police.