By adamg on Tue., 6/27/2023 - 11:38 am 
A disgusted citizen filed a 311 report this morning about the beer truck whose driver decided the best place to park it for deliveries is in a crosswalk on Main Street in Charlestown:
We need this crosswalk clear. Can someone in government please find a solution to this problem? There is no enforcement from Boston Transportation Dept. They do not enforce the constant illegal parking by delivery trucks in Charlestown.
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That, or
By fungwah
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 12:54pm
"We'll use a smaller vehicle to make deliveries to those addresses to make sure that there's a place to park them".
Did You Grow Up in an HOA development?
By John Costello
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 12:55pm
You have got strong board member vibes here.
Ever run a stop sign / red light? Even in a car?
Ever go above the speed limit?
Ever jaywalk?
Ever not speak up to the T Ambassador when they fare gate is open and they are not collecting fares?
Ever cheat on your taxes, even just a little bit?
Lighten up for christsakes.
apply that laissez faire to
By cinnamngrl
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 12:58pm
apply that laissez faire to cyclists some time.
I Will Try
By John Costello
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 1:12pm
I will.
No promises.
Pot, kettle, etc
By spin_o_rama
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 1:36pm
Nope
By John Costello on Fri, 09/02/2022 - 11:58am.
Call me crazy, but I think there's a small difference
By fungwah
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 1:44pm
between you or I jaywalking, vs a corporation knowingly and regularly breaking the law because it saves them a few dollars.
store owners have choice too
By anon
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 1:08pm
to keep requesting that their suppliers make deliveries in sensible ways with appropriately trained drivers and adequate vehicles. smaller delivery vehicles exist, businesses need to demand that they be used.
This is how cities end up as food deserts
By anon
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 1:25pm
Think for a minute what would happen if a driver refused to make a delivery. They would get fired. If the delivery company made the decision to stop delivering, they would lose the business in favor of a competitor. If enough delivery companies did that, the store owner could decide they had enough with the hassles of getting stuff delivered, and close up shop, to sell the property for fancy condos or life sciences. Or in a poor neighborhood, creating a vacant storefront.
Then people in the neighborhood would lose the benefit of having a store nearby. Residents with cars could drive to a bigger store with parking, probably a big chain (yes, I know this particular example is a 7-Eleven with a small parking lot), at the expense of creating more traffic, pollution, and risk of accidents. Residents without cars would be out of luck.
A better solution would be for city transportation officials to do their job and ensure the streets are set up so everyone can use them safely, including pedestrians and delivery trucks.
About that
By spin_o_rama
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 3:27pm
Thats gonna require some reduction in parking spots and you can look to the temper tantrum being through in West Rox to see how challenging a task that is.
Not really. The city could
By anon
Wed, 06/28/2023 - 4:57pm
Not really. The city could take 4 spaces for an expanded loading zone at the local grocery store and it would go just fine.
You mean beer deserts?
By SwirlyGrrl
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 6:56pm
Please supply a citation on that.
Your car-brained speculation passing itself off as a social justice issue is not the same as actual research.
Please explain how my concern
By anon
Wed, 06/28/2023 - 5:02pm
Please explain how my concern for supporting food stores in walking distance of residential areas, rather than big parking lot supermarkets at the edge of town, is car-brained.
This example was a beer truck, but the issue is identical for food delivery trucks. If truck drivers refuse to make deliveries because there's no legal loading spot as an earlier poster suggested, and the city makes no effort to make loading zones available, stores in older neighborhoods without off-street loading docks can't survive.
Parking in the crosswalk will kill someone
By cinnamngrl
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 12:53pm
This happens a lot in Dorchester too. My question is why are they doing deliveries during rush hour? That makes it so much worse.
Recently, they proposed city owned parking lots in Dorchester to prevent double parking. That is such a joke since they rarely actually block another car. If people are too selfish to pull to the curb, what makes you think they would pull into a parking lot?
I don’t understand all the
By anon
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 1:27pm
I don’t understand all the cars I see, mostly Ubers, double parked next to an empty parking space. That is the height of selfish laziness.
Rush hour?
By merlinmurph
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 2:58pm
Seriously?
There are only so many hours in the day. So, according to you:
- can't deliver 'til well after 9
- can't deliver from 4 'til 6 or 6:30
- can't deliver during lunch because the driver takes lunch or a lot of places don't let you. So, there's a few more hours.
That leaves about 5 hours out of a driver's 8-hour shift.
Reality is a bitch, huh?
Tell me you don't know Boston without saying
By cinnamngrl
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 3:46pm
City streets don't clog up until after 7am. And some deliveries have actual parking.
Until after 7am?!!!
By robo
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 4:32pm
Hahahaha! Thanks, I needed that.
again, how would you know.
By cinnamngrl
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 7:53pm
again, how would you know.
Ok, I’ll bite
By robo
Wed, 06/28/2023 - 8:17am
Commuted to Kendall from
Brighton for 9 years, then Seaport to Somerville for 2 years then Dorchester to Somerville for 3 years.
Your turn because you clearly have never driven a mile in Boston if you think the streets are not congested before 7am.
What makes you think you have to …
By Lee
Wed, 06/28/2023 - 12:35pm
… be in a car to know what congestion is and when it happens? I’ve driven many a mile in Boston but I can also just open my bedroom window and hear it too.
Business friendly
By Anony-mouse
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 1:03pm
Boston: We want to be business friendly
Also Boston: We are going to make it as hard as possible to get deliveries.
And yes. I know crosswalks are important. I use them myself, many times per day. But I also frequent stores that… receive deliveries. And I know delivering in small vans or only at specific hours is inefficient (read: expensive). At times something’s got to give. We can all adapt.
With all due respect, I am
By yrennalf
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 3:21pm
With all due respect, I am tired of adapting. I do not drive. I chose to live in a city for that reason. I am sick and tired of having to walk into streets (this is a general rant, not exclusively applied to this particular image) and around giant trucks, putting myself at the mercy of drivers who don't even bother looking before whipping around them.
Since you said somethings gotta give
By spin_o_rama
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 3:30pm
Boston: We are going to make it easier to get deliveries by removing some parking spaces and making delivery/loading zones.
Motorists: No, not like that!
Duh...they certainly are.
By anon
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 1:23pm
Duh...they certainly are.
Not defending the truck driver but
By DCA-BOS
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 1:57pm
the delivery is likely for the liquor store across the street, that’s why the truck isn’t parked in the lot that’s for the 7-11. There is a loading zone just past the crosswalk on the left, but since you can’t see it in the photo, no way to know if there was another vehicle taking up that space.
I checked the address- shouldn't have a problem
By Waquiot
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 2:50pm
So, this truck is most likely making a delivery to Charlestown Liquors. Looking at the street view, there's commercial parking right next to to store. Parking there would be, in the most literal sense, the easiest way to make deliveries.
But here's the thing, if you clicked on the link, you'll see that the Google car caught a passenger car parked in the commercial spot. Going back 7 years, there are cars parked in the spot in 5 views, with a telephone company van one year and it empty only one time. The streets there are narrow, so no double parking. Sadly, this is most likely the only spot the guy could find to make his delivery.
Yes, the truck shouldn't be there, and the reality is that by the time anyone who could give a ticket got there the truck would be gone, but perhaps BTD might want to keep an eye on the commercial spots.
All that analysis
By spin_o_rama
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 3:34pm
And you didn't want to mention the difficulty of emergency vehicles getting by?
Even in OPs image, it seems a little tight if not impossible for those larger vehicles to pass in an emergency.
Never researched that yourself, did you?
By Waquiot
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 4:01pm
Because if you did, you'd know that emergency responders would have a much worse time of it if the truck was blocking Warren Street rather than Main Street. BFD would only be taking Main Street returning from a call, and if push came to shove they could go over to Rutherford Ave. to get back to the station. So it seems like you are saying that the truck driver did a public service, no?
But thanks for your concern.
Don't really need to research it, I work nearby!
By spin_o_rama
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 4:46pm
Very strange that your solution here is to redirect the fire engines to Warren "if push came to shove."
What if there was a call on Main St? You know that emergency responders would have a much easier time of it if there were no trucks illegally parked, right?
And why only mention BFD but ignore the ambulances?
Redirect?
By Waquiot
Wed, 06/28/2023 - 11:15am
To get from the closest fire station to this location, the only way is Warren Street. If they took Main Street, they would be going the wrong way down the street. Only in your mind would this make sense.
Same with ambulances. The best way to MGH would be to go over the Prison Point Bridge. In any event, an ambulance could get by this truck.
Yes, it would be an easier time of the truck wasn't forced to do this, but again, someone parked in the commercial spots that were posted as such so the truck wouldn't have to block the crosswalk, which, if you cared about pedestrians, would be your concern.
Careful with that strawman
By spin_o_rama
Wed, 06/28/2023 - 12:10pm
You've carefully muddy the waters here, so lets break down what you said:
Now you've pivoted to BFD coming FROM the station, not returning from a call. Crafty but I see right through it!
Emergency vehicles certainly would have to go down Main Street if the emergency was on Main St. Getting to MGH is of course another story
Why do you think I don't care about pedestrians?
What day and time was the Google Street View taken?
By Kaz
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 3:57pm
It's only commercial parking 7A-4P and only M-F and not on holidays.
Google Street View tells you the month and year...that's not enough to tell you if what you're seeing involves illegal parking or not.
Yeah
By Waquiot
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 4:02pm
I'll admit that.
That said, again, the commercial space is tailor made for deliveries to the liquor store. I'd take any bet that it was occupied when the delivery took place.
If I were driving the
By anon
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 4:40pm
If I were driving the Googlemobile, I'd avoid places like Charlestown during the day on weekdays.
Complaining in Charlestown
By Daniel Smith
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 3:47pm
Yeh, like. Moving to Monument Ave complaining about the tourist walking around. moving to training field and composing about dogs. moving by the community ice rink and complaint about kids making noise. i mean getting a condo/apartment above a Starbucks next to liquor store and across from a 7/11 and some feet from a strip mall and complaining about deliveries. God Bless america if you ain’t happy move. Most of us found Nirvana here in Charlestown. we got just the right balance of business here without it being a problem.
Why don't we have BTD on Bikes?
By iamblued
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 6:56pm
As a commuting cyclist, the easiest solution is to put a few BTD folks on bicycles and challenge them to ride around the city to ticket.
Not only will they cover my ground, but they'll understand firsthand the dangerous consequences of a total lack of traffic enforcement is to the city. To be clear, I don't put this totally on the BTD. The Boston Police Department, by their own admission, has wholly stopped enforcing all but the most egregious moving violations all while continuing to be the only department in the city with an unlimited budget.
Coffee table book of Best of
By anon
Tue, 06/27/2023 - 9:55pm
Coffee table book of Best of Motor Vehicle Operation in Boston would have this on the cover. Forget the Internet memes. Publication of a large glossy color photo coffee table book is worthy.
For shit's sake
By anon
Wed, 06/28/2023 - 8:16am
Just detour around it. Some people have too much time on their hands
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