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Council approves letting city double parking fines on street-sweeping days - but only after hearings for specific neighborhoods
By adamg on Wed, 03/23/2016 - 1:12pm
The City Council today gave BTD approval to expand a Charlestown pilot project in which street-sweeping fines would go from $40 to $90 - but the city wouldn't tow any cars.
The council passed the measure only after including a provision that no neighborhoods get the changes regulation without a public hearing first.
City Councilor Sal LaMattina, who represents Charlestown and who used to work at BTD, said the new system seems to be working in Charlestown to get the streets reasonably clear enough to allow for sweeping.
But he said towing would like have to stay in place in certain other neighborhoods, which he didn't name, where "people just don't want to move their cars."
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Comments
$100 ticket for the first two
$100 ticket for the first two offenses. $100 ticket + tow on any subsequent violation. Maybe reset the counter every other year.
How are you going to ensure
How are you going to ensure the correct tracking of the first two offenses?
In the future...
If you're into science fiction you could imagine a meter maid carrying a tiny pocket-sized computer with a camera, a GPS, a display screen, and a wireless network connection. The meter maid could point the camera at the license plate, the pocket computer could communicate over a wireless network with a big computer somewhere; the big computer could look up the license plate number in a database to see how many prior offenses there have been, and then send the answer back to the little computer. The little computer could then connect wirelessly to a printer on the meter maid's belt, which would then print out a ticket and or a tow authorization. Heck, the big computer could even talk to the towing operator's computer and tell it the location and description of the car to be towed.
20 years out
What a world it would be with these pocket sized computers.
Not a bad idea. Could use a
Not a bad idea. Could use a similar system for speeding tickets and other traffic infractions. After 2 offenses your license is suspended. It would get at least some of the dangerous drivers off the road.
how about one for you?
If 80% of your comments in 48 hours are motorist hate, you are forced to get a life and go outside.
"Motorist hate?"
Seriously? Suggesting that people's licenses be suspended for multiple moving violations is "motorist hate?"
Unless he'd also like to see
Unless he'd also like to see cyclists have their biking "privileges" taken away after running two stop lights, or pedestrians start getting nabbed for jaywalking after two crossings-against-the-light, yup.
That misses the point
That misses the point completely.
1) today, only 25% of cars that are ticketed can get towed. the other 75% are left there and the sweeper just goes around them
2) The $90 ticket lets the city hire people to blow out debris from under parked cars.
If you do the math, then even if the street sweeper cleans 100% well, it can only clean 25% of the debris with the help of towing because most cars don't get towed. Even if a person holding a leafblower can clean only 60% as well as the big street sweeper, then that will clean 60% of all the debris under all parked cars. The guy with the broom wins.
The city towing four hundred cars a day for street sweeping does not make sense. It wastes a lot of time and money.
Towing is free
It doesn't waste any of the taxpayers' money - towing charges are paid for by the car owner, not by the city.
But with the new system the
But with the new system the penalty from the illegal parking all the money fors to the city and not the private tow company.
The ticket still goes to the
The ticket still goes to the city.
But the point remains...
... that the objective is to get the streets clean. Towing cars to remove them from the path fof the street sweeper accomplishes this.
IS that the point?
Or is the point to save time and money? The city gets a bigger chunk of the car owner's punishment for leaving their car on the street with this new system. And if cars don't get towed, they're more likely to do it again. HEY! Another $90 for the city! And maybe they'll do it a third time! When you get towed and have your life disrupted and have to pay the ticket PLUS a $110 tow AND miss work, etc to go get the car in some god-forsaken industrial wasteland far from your house, you prooooobably are gonna think about moving it the next time. At any rate the sweepers still do their thing and if people complain about dirty streets the city just says, "well, move your freakin' car then!" It's win-win-win for the city... in terms of finances.
If you think they give a damn about the neighborhood streets being clean you are wrong. If that was the case they'd put some damn trash barrels out. I've walked 3, 4, 5 blocks at a time holding trash in my hands looking for a trash can. Most times it ends up in a resident's barrel or on the street.
Just like how police details
Just like how police details don't cost the public anything, because they're all paid for by the gas, electric, telecom, and water company. /s
Not just like them at all.
Huh?
Gas, power, telecom companies, as you point out (/s) pass the charges they pay for police details on to the public. Towing charges for street cleaning affect only the person whose car is blocking the street sweeper.
This is why you ticket and
This is why you ticket and tow? The tow free for the city - just 200 or so cash for the asshole repeatedly blocking street cleaning, and the city gets the ticket.
Actual results of the pilot?
What are the metrics from the Charlestown pilot? How many cars were ticketed? How many were left blocking the street? How many of those were the same car every week, meaning some areas never get cleaned? A pilot program is useless without some analysis. Councilor Lamatina's "streets were reasonably clear" is a good start, but it would be really helpful (professional?) if BTD had have a bit more actual data.
I still give everyone credit for experimenting & trying new things. Bravo for that.
Adorable
"Metrics?" We don't need no steenkin' metrics.
Wrong metric. The bottom
Wrong metric. The bottom line is how clean the streets end up, not how many cars were in the way.
Really?
We can't change a simple regulation without a public hearing? This is a perfect example of how "tranparency" is getting in the way of common sense.
Why hearings for this policy change
I hear you, but....
I wasn't here then, but I think some neighborhoods fought hard for street sweeping, and then fought again for towing, back when their streets were a mess. So for that specific reason, it probably makes sense to check back in before stopping that policy.
Why have public hearings?
Umm... because that's the way you make policy changes with a democratically elected government. It's a regulation that a lot of people in a number of neighborhoods put a lot of time and effort into getting established in the first place, a regulation that has been a complete success in terms of getting the streets cleaner; it's unreasonably autocratic to just flick it without giving the public a chance to weigh in.
Does the city have the
Does the city have the authority to do this? I vaguely remember a state law limiting parking tickets to $50, except for certain violations like handicapped parking and fire hydrants.
Why
Why
So no problem that the guy
So no problem that the guy who used to work for BTD just made a policy to get them more money?
No problem that a fine many citizens will have to face just got doubled? Nevermind that the majority of times I've ever gotten a ticket (perhaps every time), there was no actual street sweeper. Just BTD and a tow truck waiting to pounce.
I acknowledge that there could be something going on with this particular neighborhood I don't know about, but let's not kid ourselves. The push behind these tickets is motivated by money, not some noble effort to keep streets clean.
Spot on
Money always leads to the answer.