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Boston meter maids have X-ray specs that really work
By adamg on Sat, 02/05/2011 - 6:08pm
Cynicallife reports she parked on Comm. Ave. in Packard's Corner Thursday, fed the meter and then when she came out, found a $100 ticket for parking in front of a hydrant. Can you find Waldo, um, the hydrant, in the photo above? Obviously, it was clear as day to a passing meter maid. Here's the view from the sidewalk:
She's not a happy camper:
Good job, city of Boston. Why bother digging out a hydrant or even attaching a flag to make it visible to, ohidon'tknow, firefighters ~ much less regular folks like me ~ when you can leave them buried and ticket people for not seeing them instead?
Photos posted under this Creative Comments license and in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.
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Comments
So, now that the local
So, now that the local government was clearly aware of the buried hydrant, did they dig it out?
Re: So now ...
I don't know the answer to that because I haven't been back there since it happened on Thursday. I'll check at lunch time on Monday, although the rain and melting may have made a difference even if no one shoveled it out.
Somerville Satans
We fought a couple of hours of stopped traffic to get to friends in Davis Square last evening. We did eventually find a space in the Harvard Vanguard lot. I climbed into and over four foot heaps to ice and snow to plug quarters into the meter, knowing the rep of the meter minions. Only the top of the meter, with its flashing light was visible.
Our chums said it was damned smart that I did. The constabulary has been trotting down the main drags and side streets handing out pricey tickets — for being farther than 12 inches from the curb. The joke, of course, is that the city has not plowed to the curb and there is virtually no place within a foot of the invisible curbs.
There must be a special ring of Hell for such ticket writers.
They're doing their job... as
They're doing their job... as crappy as it may be. Tough cookies you're slightly inconvenienced by the rules we all have to follow. The meter guy in our neighborhood helped us push our stuck car out of the ice / snow the other day. Nice guy.
Too far from the curb...
I keep hearing people whine about tickets for parking too far from the curb. Regardless of how far the snow extends beyond the curb, the width of the road is fixed. If you park too far from the curb, you'll impede safe passage of vehicles.
I'm glad someone is out there ticketing drivers who think that it's OK to block a fire truck, an ambulance, a bus, or anyone else, for that matter, just because there was snow in the way of a legal parking spot.
Really?
You might be right about the distance from the curbs, but the ticket was distance from the curb. I am sure the other cars in the picture didn't get tickets.
Photos not from Somerville
@downtown-anon: If you read more closely you would have known that the photos above and linked here refer to an entirely different parking issue than the one in Somerville to which you seem to have responded. I am the only one who was ticketed in the incident noted in the original post, not because my car was too far from a curb, but because I was (as it turns out) in front of an entirely buried fire hydrant. The commenter who wrote about the Somerville parking issues was commiserating with me about the Brighton/Packard's Corner ticket I received in the location pictured in this post.
Authoritarians' Apologist
How nice for the cities that anon(s) is there to make illogical and probably illegal excuses. As Cynicalife's post notes, parking next to an invisible hydrant should be no violation.
The city also has responsibilities. They are aware of this in some extremes, banning parking and towing so they can do what is required for safety (and then law enforcement).
If they can't clear to the curb or make sure a curb cut or hydrant is visible, there shouldn't be any ticket there. Issuing one is akin to thought crimes, or to writing up a fine for an parking violation when there is no sign forbidding parking. The cities and their traffic wardens need to display a tad of reason as well.
I'd bet that legally too if a ticket recipient brings in an image showing the heaps of snow, the court would toss it. If they can't show a visible curb, there's no way to know the distance from the wheels to it. Letting the constabulary act like judge and legislator is the essence of day-to-day totalitarianism.
Let's all play fair.
Curb
They don't seem to be enforcing the curb thing, such as on Huntington Ave close to South Huntington where the outside driving lanes have become the parking lanes and the traffic is all using the inside lane (sharing with the trolley).
If they wanted to, I think they could get people for different laws though, like parking in a lane of travel, or on a two-lane or one-lane street not leaving at least 12 or 14 feet or whatever it is for cars to use.
Problem: Not my problem
So much for community. Everyone just walks by. Problem? Not my problem!
You'd think 1029 would want it cleared, and do so, just in case. The guy next to 1029 appears to not even bothered with the sidewalk, luckily its a measly $50 citation.
Every mans an island. Don't tread on me!
Appeal it!
Simply send a letter of appeal and any evidence, like those pictures, to the address below. You can also appeal online but I'm not sure if it allows you to attach pictures. I've recommended the process to friends who were initially skeptical but had good results. The Transportation Commissioner, Tom Tinlin, is a decent guy. I'm sure there'll be plenty of these appeals coming in.
City of Boston
P.O. Box 55800
Boston, MA 02205
http://www.cityofboston.gov/parking/appeal.asp
Something doesn't add up
Fed a parking meter in front of a fire hydrant?
This.
Didn't you wonder why there was only one meter on the post for two spaces (you were the 3rd car using 2 meters starting from the bus stop)?
electronic?
Although i don't think they've installed them along this section of Comm Ave.
Oh, I don't know
I've had countless experiences where I park and can't figure out whichTF meter is mine. Boston doesn't generally paint lines on the road or put arrows on the meters. Or other people are parked like assholes so the whole line of people is pushed up so that everyone's meter is falling in the middle of their car or past their car. I've been known to feed two meters when people are parked particularly assholishly.
This phenomenon has also benefited me though when I've been able to squeeze in between two cars and fit in more cars than meters because of people's assholish parking. They can't prove who got to what meter first, and if they're all fed...
There are also random places in Boston where there's one legal unmetered spot in a row of meters, or a meter that's been jacked and never replaced. I don't think her assumption is unfounded around here.
Get Smart
Only reason it might be worth getting a Smart Fortwo. Squeezing into fake parking spots.
Thanks, Eeka
Eeka is correct: The way the other cars were parked, combined with the towering snowbanks, made it look perfectly reasonable that the meter behind me was the right one for the space I was in. I didn't go so far as to count meters and spaces all the way back to the bus stop several car lengths back. I suppose some folks here would say I should have done exactly that. As it was, the friend whom I was meeting that day signalled me from the sidewalk that there was an available space and I pulled into it. I then paid a meter that seemed appropriately close by. Neither of us thought there was anything strange about the spacing of the meters, and it was soon enough after the last storm that I hadn't noticed (or seen photos of) buried hydrants around the city so it never occurred to me to be looking for the tiny metal X barely poking out of the snow. I'm still going to appeal the ticket because I think the city should be on notice that it's unsafe to leave hydrants buried and unflagged, not so much because I think I shouldn't be expected to follow the applicable laws.
Unless it's a double meter,
Unless it's a double meter, your parking meter shouldn't be behind your spot.
Yeah
Am I the only lifelong (almost, anyway) Massachusetts resident (age 45, btw) who never noticed that? Someone else said this to me on FB, but I did not realize it before. Wish you'd schooled me earlier, Tricky.
When I was about 8 years old,
When I was about 8 years old, I asked my parents how you knew which meter was for which space. They said you pay the meter that's just in front of your car. (There weren't double-headed meters in the area, but once you know the basic rule, double meters are easy to figure out.)
I was told that it is in the middle of the space
It depends on where you are, and whether the local municipality bothers to put helpful lines down that show 1)what is a space and 2) what is not a space.
No, not generally...
but sometimes you have the domino effect from a whole row of assholes thinking they need damn near a whole car length in front and behind in order to get in/out of the spot. (These are usually the people who head into spots. And also pull up on your ass when you signal and pull over and position yourself so as to correctly parallel park. Then they honk and scream at you.)
Precisely what I had planned to say.
There is no meter, it's not a spot. It's really that simple, and has nothing to do with whether you can see the hydrant or the bus stop or the loading zone only sign. No meter means don't park there.
WTF!
How is it that there is a meter in front of a fire hydrant anyway?! I dont believe the meter maid. The boston parking department is evil!
Let me lay it out for you
[hydrant][-meter-------][-meter-------][bus stop------------------]
Cynic parked to the left of that leftmost meter and thought it was for where they parked.