If you have a car on the street and you don't shovel it out within 48 hours, you get a ticket. There are no space savers. The DPW has a mobile street cleaning crew which looks for and clears out unshoveled empty spaces. On my street, there are two empty, snow filled spots. They are the 'problem' with parking on the street in that simply put people are not going to shovel out these spots to park their car vs. taking another open spot.

A common refrain on these threads is that 'you don't own the spot!' (see above) This is true! It's also true that the city has neither the budget or infrastructure to clear the streets without adding a lot more money to the DPW budget. And so, the folks with cars shovel them out and people shovel out the sidewalks in front of their homes. The problem is that this is only partially clears the streets and sidewalks. I propose we create a DPW street team to deal with the other spots, seeing as it is the city's streets. Similarly, the 311 team should be able to take un-shoveled walks reports and then have those also cleared by DPW teams and then the property owner (commercial or residential) would then get a bill for $500. And so, we have clear sidewalks, clear streets, no space savers and we haven't added a huge line item to the city budget.

what?

By ims on Tue, 03/05/2019 - 5:43pm.

Sorry, why does it matter at all if people shovel out a car they aren't using that day?

Because the goal is to get the snow off the street/sidewalks

By Parkwayne on Tue, 03/05/2019 - 6:12pm.

You want to leave your car on the street for free parking, fine, but clearing the snow around it helps the people who want to use those adjacent sports and more importantly keeps unshoveled cars from congesting the roads but narrowing them. With this system within 2-3 days of a snow storm, we should have pretty much clear streets and sidewalks city wide. The ticketing helps pay for the DPW street spot crews.

please cite the regulation

By cinnamngrl on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 12:02am.

I have been threatened several times over the years for digging out my car by dpw. They seemed to think that I am obligated to remove the snow from the street. That includes the snow that they just pushed on my car. As far as I can tell you are not allowed to push snow from your property on the street. As for snow already in the street there is no law about it. In fact there is no Massachusetts Law that requires you to even clean off your car when you drive it. The plate and and applicable parking sticker must be visible.

Your post confirms that no one has any idea what the rules are.

MGL 85 section 36

By dirtywater77 on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 1:55am.

I don't think there's a specific law about snow on cars, but snow on the roof is an unsecured load and snow on the front windshield is impeded operation. State Police will write citations for both. Dunno about BPD, but I'm going to guess they don't care as much.

yes, exactly. although you

By cinnamngrl on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 1:26pm.

yes, exactly. although you are over thinking it. Negligent operation is all that is needed.

What are you talking about?

By Parkwayne on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 7:16am.

My entire original post was based on what I think would be a good idea and has zero to do with rules and regulation. I'm not citing anything.

You obviously shouldn't/can't be allowed to shovel snow onto the middle of the street. That's the same as shoveling your sidewalk out by dumping the snow onto your neighbor's shoveled out space. The snow goes onto the yards along the street or in the case of a one side only parking street, the other side of the street on the curb.

This entire post is about

By cinnamngrl on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 1:32pm.

This entire post is about based on what even a non libertarian thinks is making up regulations to collect revenue from people that specifically annoy Parkwayne is a demonstration of poor understanding.

Actually, when you push snow into the middle of the street it gets spread out and melts faster. But that doesn't mean that everyone should follow my one idea that i think helps.

Shoveling snow into the street

By Cranky on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 4:10pm.

Sometimes it gets spread out and melts faster, but there's an equal chance that it will get tamped down by passing cars, freeze, and turn into an impromptu (and slippery) speed bump. Not a great idea if it can be avoided.

not an equal chance.

By cinnamngrl on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 7:12pm.

On rare occasions it could freeze there, if perhaps a person was shoveling at midnight.

shoveling cars

By ims on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 10:10am.

Hm, Parkwayne, I see the problem differently. When cars are left with snow on them, they usually seem to be parked close to the curb and not in the middle of the road (because they were parked before the storm). To me, it seems like the congestion is caused by post-storm parking. If the spot wasn't fully cleared previously (by a person or by the plow), there is often a snow bank against the curb or the spot is narrowed by the snow, and people leave their cars farther from the curb and in the middle of the road.

Similarly, when people clear their own cars and current parking spots, if anything I think they make it harder for people to park in adjacent spots because a lot of that snow ends up in adjacent spots. Not that it should, but it often seems to.

Anyway, this is mostly only a problem because we've decided to give parking away for free.

Parkwayne, why do you

By Anon on Tue, 03/05/2019 - 7:28pm.

Want me to get a ticket for being on a business trip?

. you have a car on the street and you don't shovel it out within 48 hours, you get a ticket

Sure!

By Parkwayne on Tue, 03/05/2019 - 7:54pm.

Or have someone else shovel out your car for $50 or park it off the street. Not the city's problem.

Check the weather forecast and plan accordingly.

If we're going to do all that...

By fungwah on Tue, 03/05/2019 - 9:24pm.

Just implement street cleaning rules after a snowstorm and force everyone to move to one side of the street, then the other, and plow each side to the curb. Gets everyone to shovel out and move their cars, and lets the plows actually clear out all the snow on the street.

What about one side only parking streets?

By Parkwayne on Tue, 03/05/2019 - 10:11pm.

Not uncommon...

Also that would require more equipment and DPW involvement. This is spot touch-ups vs. city wide snow removal.

We have single side parking

By anon on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 7:31am.

We have single side parking during a storm in Somerville, plows do not ever plow to the curb on the empty side. Just one strip straight down the middle of the street. This storm, last storm, every storm. If that's the way it's going to work then what's the point?

They're doing it wrong

By lbb on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 9:55am.

Just because the city of Somerville is doing it wrong, doesn't mean it's not a workable solution. I don't know if it's the best solution, but proposing solutions is better than the current "eh, it'll melt eventually" approach to snow removal.

Sure, sounds great

By anon on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 12:09pm.

I'd love to see that too. But that requires standards and enforcement. That's not going to automatically happen just by declaring one side of the street no-parking.

Sort of depends on the street

By Ari O on Tue, 03/05/2019 - 10:12pm.

On my street, we used to be able to fit five cars in front of my house and the one next door, but only if they were back-to-back (we can now only fit four because the City installed a raised crosswalk, which is great, no one is making the corner at 25 mph anymore). In any case, when it snowed we couldn't leave big piles of snow in between cars if we wanted to maximize the parking spaces, so we'd work together to clear out between the cars, and neighbors along the street generally help each other clear spaces. Not a lot of space saving going on (also it's Cambridge and not officially sort of allowed but still happens) but there isn't this kind of discourse.

Of course …

2013: Some guy (I have to assume) puts a Porsche in front of my house for a month, with one of those obnoxious car covers on it (legal, apparently, if the city can see the license plate; they don't have to be able to see the sticker. When a big storm was a-comin', the car disappeared in to a garage because baby can't get wet, or something. We shoveled out the spaces and lo and behold, the Porsche returns. No one was called names, but a sign was put up saying something like "we spent time clearing these spaces so they could be used by people who also put an effort in to clearing spaces. If you shoveled a space elsewhere and someone took it, fine. If not, we'd appreciate that you not take advantage of others' work." The Porsche was gone the next day and we have never seen it again.

2015: Someone was too lazy to get Mass tags, and used a visitor permit all fall and in to the winter with Kansas plates, and being Cambridge not Somerville, no one checked. Well, no one checked for a while, until it was booted in mid-January. As the first big storm approached, I called the city to see if it could be towed, since a booted car with two feet of snow on it (or so we thought, then look what happened) might be entombed for the rest of the winter (would, it turned out). The city said "it has to be booted for seven days before we can tow it, and our records show it was booted six days ago." I told them that was nice, but did they really want to come and tow it out of a snowbank after the storm? Someone got the message, because as the first flakes were falling that evening, it was taken to the impound. That car did return, this time with Massachusetts plates, local registration and excise fees, a Cambridge permit, and a driver several hundred dollars poorer than he needed to be.

Move it, buddy

By johnmcboston on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 10:39am.

Technically, no car can be in the same spot for more than 72 hours I believe. At that point the city can technically declare it abandoned. But it's also meant to turn over street spaces and not be a place to leave your car for months on end. (Irregardless of snow)

Please cite the regulation.

By cinnamngrl on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 1:37pm.

Please cite the regulation.

Section 22C: Abandoned motor vehicles; removal and disposal

By fungwah on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 2:18pm.

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter90/Sect...

From the city:

The City of Boston can legally take possession of vehicles left standing on City streets for more than 72 hours. We enforce this regulation if

we receive a complaint from a resident, or
the vehicle poses a safety hazard.

We don't automatically consider a vehicle parked on the same street for more than 72 hours abandoned.

You cut "reasonable

By cinnamngrl on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 7:17pm.

You cut "reasonable determined to be abandoned" out of your quote box. That generally means expired plates, inspection stickers or major damage.

Regulation found... sort of

By Allston Hipster on Wed, 03/06/2019 - 2:51pm.

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter90/Sect...

Section 22C. If the superintendent of streets or other officer having charge of the public ways in a city or town reasonably deems that any motor vehicle apparently abandoned by its owner and standing for more than seventy-two hours upon a public or private way therein or on any property therein without the permission of the owner or lessee of said property or if a captain or lieutenant of the state police reasonably deems that any motor vehicle apparently abandoned by its owner and standing for more than seventy-two hours upon any property under their respective jurisdictions, is worth less than the cost of removal and storage and expenses incident to disposition pursuant to sections seven to eleven, inclusive, of chapter one hundred and thirty-five, sections eighty-nine to ninety-four, inclusive, of chapter ninety-two, or sections forty-five to forty-eight, inclusive, of chapter twenty-two C, he may, without incurring liability on his part or on the part of the city, town or the commonwealth, take possession of such motor vehicle and dispose thereof as refuse. Any such superintendent or other officer of a city or town may, likewise, without liability, take possession of any such motor vehicle deemed worth more than the cost and expense as aforesaid, and deliver the same to the officer or member of the police department of the city or town, designated by the rules of said department as custodian of lost property, wherein said motor vehicle was found, who may dispose thereof pursuant to said sections seven to eleven, inclusive. Any such officer of said state police may, likewise, without liability, take possession of any such motor vehicle deemed worth more than the cost and expenses as aforesaid, and dispose thereof pursuant to said sections eighty-nine to ninety-four, inclusive, or said sections forty-five to forty-eight, inclusive.

When the weather is warm maybe I'll sweep the entire block where you live and claim it for myself. Does that sound fair?

A voluble snow cone in Allston

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