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Nobody puts the Somerville Fire Department in a corner


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...I wonder what it says?

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Visitor parking permit

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.... "welcome to Somerville!"

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I live in Somerville and see those on the dashboards of about half the cars on my street on any given day, but my eyes thank you for the vote of confidence.

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They'll ticket you the minute you overstay the time limit for those visitor passes, so rest assured that it's pretty impossible to live in Somerville full time and get away with using one of those.

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Unless your cousin knows someone who went to Somerville High with so and so. There's been a car on my street with a visitor's pass and a rejected inspection sticker for over 6 months now, never seen a ticket on the car.

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Great Dirty Dancing reference!

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Yet another example of the failure of Somerville's policy of not posting "no parking" signs 20 feet from corners. They'd rather keep that law under-publicized, and write tickets to people who don't know about it, even if it means fire trucks get blocked.

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Anyone who has any sense knows he is causing problems for other people if he were to park like that. Common sense should tell you that parking there is dangerous and discourteous and, less importantly, that there is probably a law against it.

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Should they also post, "don't park 5 feet from the curb" signs?

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Was the tow for that reason or that the SUV was so far from the curb? I realize the city can be pretty arbitrary on enforcement, but the car across the street is also less than 20 feet from the intersection. Perhaps it was a "2 strikes & you're out" approach.

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Parking is allowed on only one side of that street, for the obvious reasons.

Why are drivers allowed to be so stupid that other considerations - such as "can a firetruck get through" don't enter their heads unless signed???? Especially when existing laws that drivers should know cover the issue (too far from curb, too close to intersection)???

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What street is it? It looks wide enough for parking on both sides, assuming people park properly.

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Note that the edge of the crosswalk "instructs" motorists to park a good distance from the corner? They have been doing that sort of thing as they rebuild sidewalks, crosswalks, and intersections. The crosswalk + the length of curb to the corner = no need to guess.

The real problem wasn't the distance to the corner, anyway. The real problem was the car being five feet out from the curb. Do they need a sign that says "park against the curb", too?

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The downstream edge of the crosswalk is less than 20 feet from the corner. So you can get ticketed if you use the crosswalk as a guide.

If they'd parked that far from the curb but not near the corner, maybe the truck could have gotten through. That doesn't mean it would be a good idea, and it would still certainly be illegal. But it probably means if they'd posted the 20-foot zone, the truck would have gotten through.

None of this is relevant to my post asking for confirmation that parking is only allowed on one side of the street.

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In their defense, the city is supposed to plow that side of the street to the curb. It's the only snow in the picture. Don't call snow emergencies if you're just going to effectively render half the street useless for a week, the DPW should do their job properly.

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This has driven me crazy for years. In some places, there are signs saying "No Parking Here To Corner". I've gotten tickets for parking "within 20 feet of an intersection" where there was a "Permit Parking Only" sign or a "2 Hour Parking" sign between my car and the corner. If the sign suggests "don't park here", people won't. If the sign says "parking spot here!", there's gonna be cars parked.

When appealing the ticket they say that turning clearance for fire trucks is the reason behind the ticket. But there should damn well be a sign there if it's a life-or-death issue. City leadership are going to have a huge problem on their hands if someone dies because the city didn't want to put up a street sign so they could continue to rake in parking ticket revenue.

I seem to remember someone dying in Southie a few years back because there was no sign and parked cars blocked the fire truck - the city of Boston has put up a LOT of "No Parking Here To Corner" signs in recent years. They wisely put a picture of a fire truck on the sign so people know it's a major safety issue and not just whiney neighbors.

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10+ yrs ago I was ticketed in Boston for parking too close to the corner (There was no sign and I left probably more than a car length between me and the corner.) I contested the ticket because there was no sign (other than the Resident Permit sign - I had a res permit) and I thought I had left enough space. The ticket was forgiven but the next week a sign was installed at that corner.

Looking at google street view it now seems that sign is gone and street cleaning one is in its place.

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It looks like he did not want his car to even touch snow. Why bother owning a car like that if you don't put it to use?

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Also, I think this asshat deserved to get towed, but a Somerville visitor permit has the address it's assigned to written right on there - a knock on the right door could've gotten the SUV moved without having to wait for a tow truck. Bad driver would still have an expensive ticket and the fire truck would be on it's way quicker.

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