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That awkward moment when you park your car after a snowstorm, then return several days later
By adamg on Sat, 01/13/2018 - 11:37am
Miloš Miljković noticed what the warmer weather and rain turned into an awkward parking job last night (and reports that BPD then showed up to ticket the car).
Kelley Hand noticed more of the same in the North End this morning:
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Comments
Common scene all over the city right now,
but it really shows how poor the snow plowing was for last week's storm. This is especially true on snow emergency routes, where the road should have been plowed to the curb when there were no vehicles on the road. Otherwise, what's the sense of declaring a snow emergency in the first place.
As has been said on the site for the past week, we need a better plan for managing snow plowing and removal.
It’s been a disgrace corn years.
How many people are making 6 figures wofor king for the city while the snow removal budget is severely underfunded. Boston is a compact city too. A small landmass in comparison to other cities with its population.
There’s no excuse for this. Nearly every winter it’s the same story. Praying for rain and unseasonably warm weather is not a plan.
Plowing to the curb means
Huge snowbanks, difficult to be moved with shovels, being deposited on sidewalks. I’ll take this instead, since I prefer walking on sidewalks to walking on busy streets.
It’s called snow removal.
And it’s needed in the truly urban areas of the city. Perhaps not in the burblike part where you reside.
I don’t think you know how it truly works
From when the plow passes until when the snow is “removed.”
Point of order. Reject the tyranny of or.
I know your raison d‘etre in these parts is to educate us about “how things really work.” The bottom line is that the city needs to spend more on snow removal. So, you know, pedestrians, cyclists and drivers can move about the city. It’s not a goddamn zero sum game but thanks for encouraging another ponderous bike v car discussion. I think there’s certainly ground to be covered there.
Okay, then
Tell us how any city removes snow from curb to curb in a reasonable amount of time without simply throwing it on sidewalks.
Try going to Montreal
Try going to Montreal
https://youtu.be/nolzYZoqtJ8?t=58s
Sure
That video, and the next one up in the playlist which shows Montreal doing what Boston does, was taken well after the storm was over. The reality is that what is shown in that video is a lengthy, labor intensive process. Also, I will once again note that what is shown is no plowing to the curb. It’s doing what Boston does with follow up days later.
Boston
the only city in the country that cannot figure out snow removal. No other city, in the snow belt, has these problems.
Prioritizing people over
Prioritizing people over parking? Nonsense! 100% of the snow should be plowed from the streets onto sidewalks and bike lanes. The convenience of drivers must come before the safety of pedestrians!! We must spend millions on clearing streets and zero on sidewalks because umm reasons??
Dude
You seriously need like a hug or something.
Hey
The stuck clock is right this time. “Plowing curb to curb” as Gosoxgo suggests is basically saying “screw you walkers. We need the parking lanes clear.”
On Snow Emergency Routes,
at least in Boston, sidewalks are generally much wider and have a buffer that can handle plowed snow. Last week’s storm was only about a foot. That should be something we can handle without having cars parked 10 feet out from the curb.
FWIW, I don’t have a car, and use the T and walk to get around the city, so I do understand concerns about properly-shoveled sidewalk widths and the balance with plowed snow.
Au Contraire
I walk on a snow emergency artery every day, and two different ones, too. I can say with certainty that if the contractors were instructed to clear both the travel and parking lanes on Washington Street between Roslindale Square and Forest Hills over to the curb, there would have been 5 foot high snow mounds covering the sidewalk the entire width after this past storm. They stack on the corners nowadays, so imagine that entire blocks looking like that. My other route is Hyde Park Avenue. Again, the sidewalks are at most 4 feet wide. You're talking about pushing 3 lanes worth of snow into that area for what? So cars can park with their wheels flush to the curb. In the former case, sadly I will admit that I am glad that cars use as their guide the outer edge of the bike line. Not cool for the cyclists, but at least the buses can get by. For the latter, the Public Works people do eventually come back and clear with front loaders and dump trucks. That, or expensive, slow melting machines, would be the best practice, not making sidewalks impassible.
I'm confused
I thought that people who used street parking had to have cars and parking because they use them every day?
I wish! So many selfish
I wish! So many selfish people haven’t moved their cars since the first snow storm weeks ago. If you don’t need a car, get rid of it, garage it, get it off the street.
No
I now use my car almost every day. But in my last job, I drove to the office a couple days per week, and worked from home a couple of days per week. I had enough flexibility that if my car was buried or there was an abnormal situation, I could work from home a week or two at a stretch, but that was for exceptional situations, not routine.
I also have elderly family scattered around greater Boston. Some of them I help care for on a regular basis. When my car was snowed in, or I was busy, or traveling, other family members can usually jump in to help, but I have to pull my weight when I can. Which generally requires a car. When other family members can't help out (if they're busy or traveling for work), then I shovel out and have to hunt for parking like everyone else.
Bottom line is I use my car regularly, but work schedules, personal and professional travel, vacations, and other situations can partially dictate, and sometimes that means my car can be driven daily for weeks on end, and then sit for several days or even 2 weeks.
I also walk frequently and do my best to clear my nearby hydrants, storm grates, and corner ramps.
So please don't assume you know everyone's situation.
I mean 100% of the snow being
I mean 100% of the snow being plowed anywhere is a good start.
But they spent HOURS
But they spent HOURS shoveling out their spot!
Should have towed days ago
You shouldn't be allowed to park in the travel lane because the parking spots are filled. Either shovel it out or go someplace else.
Parking in the travel lanes just creates traffic and a big mess. The city shouldn't tolerate it.
But then you would be denying
But then you would be denying drivers their favorite pastimes: ignoring the law and complaining about the traffic that they themselves are causing.
Please give it a rest already
Your self-righteousness is getting old.
You really should check
You really should check yourself with these sweeping generalizations. As a driver and a pedestrian - I get it, dude. Yesterday I almost got clipped right in a crosswalk. There are certainly people out there who shouldn't be driving, but it's not every motorist. You paint everyone with a car as some lazy, entitled scumbag who's actively out to get you. A lot of us are just trying to get to work, in areas not serviced by the T. If you took a more reasoned stance on this, people might actually take you seriously instead of thinking you're a deranged anti-vehicle troll.
Just a reminder that two
Just a reminder that two people were shot and killed during broad day light on Thursday and later that evening, multiple people were shot and multiple armed robberies occurred at several businesses in dorchester.
Bitch about that. Fuck your bike lanes. People are dying.
Yes, people are dying
That's why we are bitching about our bike lanes. http://www.visionzeroboston.org/whynow
Solutions
People bitch about parking as there are clear solutions. Less comments on murder stories as there isn't anything to add. They are tragic and horrifying.
Get rid of your car
If you don't need to use it more than eight days after it snows. This in essence is a space saver, which.i may add I'm not against, as long as you shovel out your spot.
You must be a tireless worker
Who cannot imagine why somebody might not use his or her car for eight straight days, so I'm going to suggest you Google the word "vacation" (but, hmm, since you are such a busy worker, surely you've heard of the concept of extended site visits to remote facilities, no?).
There's also the concept of
There's also the concept of finding another place to leave your car when you go on vacation...
In Somerville we aren't allowed to stay in the same on-street space for more than 48 hours (and yes, they do ticket!), so whenever I'll be out of town and am not taking my car, I find a friend or relative who is willing to put it in their driveway, ask a friend I trust to move it every couple days, or suck it up and pay to park it at the airport or elsewhere.
It's just part of the cost of owning a car in the city.
Actually
I did shovel out my spot the day of the storm after it stopped snowing. I came back the next morning to go to work, and someone had shoveled me completely in. Seeing that the snow would melt in a few days, I opted to not waste time shoveling and Lyfted to work. This was vastly cheaper than buying a parking space, which are currently going for $200 in Eastie.
Free Parking is worth what you pay for it.
I can barely get consensus from my neighbors where to put the snow from our little parking area in the alley behind my building. How should we expect the City to prioritize, organize, and remove all the snow across the City for everyone's convenience? In this case, Mother Nature did the job way faster than anyone could have expected.
I used to love snow before I got a car. Having a car in Boston during the winter is just pure masochism especially if you expect free parking. Sure we could make the snow budget big enough to remove it all but I don't think anyone would like the property taxes or the tradeoffs. Maybe if we make resident parking stickers to about $400 a year that might raise the cash to allow it.
Anyone from Brookline where overnight on-street parking is banned have a comment?
I live in Brookline,
the private contractors and DPW managers do a piss-poor job of handling snow, and they have a blank canvas to start with.(parking bans during snow emergencies and no overnight parking year round)
Snowmelters
I remember hearing back in 2015 that many Canadian cities have portable snowmelter machines, so rather than leaving snow of streets or pushing it into sidewalks or bike lanes, they melt it right there and direct the water down into the street or storm drains. Anyone know why these machines aren’t considered appropriate for Boston (or does Boston have some but not enough)? Too expensive? Too slow? A problem of environmental impact? Seems like a great solution...
My intuition is that melting
My intuition is that melting snow requires *far* more energy than hauling it. Haven't looked up numbers, but that would be my first stop in checking if it's a good idea.
Boston does have these. They
Boston does have these. They were used extensively in the aftermath of the Winter From Hell (TM)
The problem with them is that they're large and expensive (both to buy and to run), and have potential environmental impacts. Running them involves dumping large quantities of water into the sewer system at once, potentially triggering overflows.
What they did in 2015 was completely close an intersection for a few hours, park a snow melter in the middle, and get rid of it all. But that's a logistical nightmare so it's reserved for the really bad storms with no melting in the forecast.
Agreed.
Add to that, from what I recently learned, is that once the portable snow melters have been turned on, they can't be moved until they've cooled down. So the plan has to be in place to know a central location for the melters to even begin the work of trucking the snow to them.
"How people park in Boston"
Looks more like how a NJ tax evading transplant who never learned how to drive outside their suburb parks.
Here's a thought (that many
Here's a thought (that many people won't like):
Boston regulations say you may not park more than 1' from the curb. So if it has snowed, and you can't park within 1' of the curb because of snow, either clear the snow yourself so that you can or don't park there.
I'm tired of parking being the highest priority on our streets after it snows. It screws over everyone using the street for it's main purpose: to get from point A to point B. People parking in the bike lanes and travel lanes creates a dangerous and confusing situation for everyone, and makes traffic even worse than it is normally (which is already pretty bad.)
If drivers think the City needs to do a better job plowing (which clearly they do), they should petition their elected officials to have snow plowed better and trucked away more often to make all the parking spaces available.