I think raising pkg tickets to find money for the state is just another *tax* on the residents. I hate to cry poor me or poor drivers but it just seems between the poential gas tax it makes me have serious anxiety.
It is pretty well understood that private vehicles are the most heavily tax-subsidized class of transportation. The cost of maintining the infrastructure and services that support driving are well beyond the level of state and federal gasoline taxes and other fees and taxes, and have been for decades.
Please explain why you think that taxpayers who drive far less than you do should continue to subsidize you to the degree that we do.
According to Hart and Spivak, government subsidies for highways and parking alone amount to between 8 and 10 percent of our gross national product, the equivalent of a fuel tax of approximately $3.50 per gallon.
Not all taxes are for services you use. Everyone pays taxes etc for many things they don't use. This is just one thing you go out of your way to not use so it seems ridiculous. It is one thing I do use and it seems ridiculous to me. It's all a matter of opinion and they are like A** holes....
I think the question is whether $100 is a reasonable penalty for violating parking rules not whether violating parking rules is a violation of, well parking rules.
How does one determine what is reasonable? Perhaps comparison is a good method.
The base fine for speeding is 100 dollars. It goes up from there.
Is parking in front of a fire hydrant, blocking a crosswalk, or blocking a wheelchair ramp less of a nuisance to society and public safety than keeping up with traffic on 128?
Are the fines for parking beyond your metered time going to increase?
I have no problem with fining the hell out of folks who park in handicapped spots illegally, or who block crosswalks and fire hydrants - we drivers know damn well those things are illegal, and if you do them, you deserve to be reamed - but I have a major problem with the city extracting exorbitant fines from the pockets of those who parked in legal spaces and who may be a few minutes late getting back to their cars.
Perhaps a sliding scale, dependent upon the amount of overage, would be fair.
Anyway, is this part of the package being considered?
since this is all about me I don't get parking tickets and I would never ever even think of breaking Any law nor am I exceedingly anything, ever.
on the other hand; I'd love a police escort at any given time, it seems fun!
It makes me have no anxiety whatsoever. I'd be thrilled if more revenue came from lawbreakers instead of good citizens. It serves a dual function, discouraging bad behavior and lowering my costs.
None here, its all a matter of opinion and in the end I will feel the same. My taxes are high enough, my job doesnt pay, whaa whaa whaa. I should be a politician:P
The frikin end.
Im moving on to turkey news
Nah. I'm a resident. Not just that, but an owner. Not just that but an owner of a driveway. And this isn't going to cost me a dime.
I'm all for higher parking tickets, especially if it means the cops will come tow the massholes who sometimes park in or in front of my driveway. That would be a benefit to me, not a cost.
It would be a tax if everybody had to pay it in the course of some legal and legitimate activity. But they don't. Only people who break the law have to pay it. Call it a penalty. Call it a fee for service. I'll call it a great source of government revenue because it's coming from only nuisance people and not from me.
Maybe next they can institute a $100 fine for not picking up your dog's business.
Romney-esque increases in standard fees for government services is a tax on residents. Raising the penalty for a parking violation isn't. Not even remotely. A fee and a fine are fundamentally different. I'm much happier with increasing fines, because if you obey the law, then it doesn't effect you. If I need a state ID, I have no choice but to pay the increased fee to get one. If I don't want to pay an increased parking fine, then I park legally. And none of that, "oh but its so hard" nonsense. Plenty of people suck it up and obey the law when its inconvenient to them, so I've no sympathy for those who put their desires first. Well, here is your penalty. I don't even see how $100 is supposed to be that high. It is a fine, after all. Its not supposed to be painless.
Does Flaherty think people are entitled to park in illegal spaces?
Also, how much is a fine now in a residential area? Someone told me 25$ the other day, which means its cheaper to park and get a ticket around Fenway than it is to pay for game parking.
This past Friday, I saw something I'd never seen before in my 14 years here: A vehicle with a Denver Boot (on Cummins Highway near the Irving Middle School). I guess you can't outrun the long arm of the parking enforcement officer anymore.
I got one the other day. Fortunately, work paid for it, but they aren't generally in the habit of doing this.
BTW, I'm all for raising parking fines, especially for stuff like accessibility ramps, accessible parking spots, fire hydrants, blocking driveways, etc. But if they're going to do it, they also need to take care of the shitload of meters that won't register your quarter but don't show that they're out of order either so you get ticketed anyway, and consistently maintain the signs that have fallen down or been stolen or whatever but they still ticket you based on your psychic ability to know that it's a resident spot or one-hour spot or whatever.
Also, it would be nice if the city offered some sort of permits for folks (visiting nurses, supported housing folks, case managers, etc.) whose jobs require that they visit homes back to back all day. These jobs are paid for by state contracts, but the agencies definitely don't make enough to pay for parking tickets or parking in a lot, and the workers certainly don't. My job involves some home visiting, and they'll periodically pay for tickets for parking in a resident spot if it was because a home assessment or something absolutely had to get done that day, but otherwise, they really don't have the money, so we either pay it ourselves or have to reschedule on a family, which is really disrespectful and unprofessional. Our productivity requirements are of course really high, since the state doesn't put a whole lot of money toward human services, so we don't have enough time in our schedules to take the T and still be able to see everyone.
You know, just in case da mayuh read UH or anything. ;-)
The parking fines haven't gone up in 15 years or so that I recall (please correct me if I'm having a midlife moment on that!). These new ones seem consistent with "promised" fines that I've seen in other cities like NYC, Chicago, SFO, etc.
The $100 would NOT be for the standard "oops, didn't feed the meter" lapse. $100 would be for Massic Self-Important Classhole parking - blocking fire hydrants, wheelchair ramps and spaces, etc. If it gets entitled arseholes out of places they don't belong, three cheers.
As for a "tax", well, no. Unlike the gas price death trap that many are suddenly realizing that they live in, this isn't one you have to pay if you have to use a car. I think any price should come with a requirement to upgrade and maintain signage, though.
If the city enforced the parking rules in the southwestern neighborhoods, they could make back a good amount of lost revenue while still giving law-abiding taxpayers more bang for their buck. The resources aren't there for round-the-clock checks but even twice a month would generally keep most people honest.
My proposal is to raise the price of parking violations by inflation plus 3 percent. Who is getting raises in excess of 3%?
The purpose of a fine is to penalize the behavior and create an incentive that encourages compliance.
The purpose is not to fill the city's coffers in a budget crisis.
Where do we find the balance for a parking violation? Should the penalty exceed the cost of using a private lot ($25,$30)? Probably. Should it be $1000? $500? 250?, No too much.
as a force multiplier. CCTV with automated video analysis could easily detect lawbreakers in targeted spots, beam alerts to Lovely Rita via wifi, and save on cruise time.
I suspect it's not an either/or but how much of each.
Vast areas of Boston are not patrolled for ticketing. I was in Allston and parked on a street that doesn't usually get patrolled for parking violations. It did that day. (I'm from WR so my WR resident sticker was of no use in Allston.) I'll bet the guy wrote 50 tickets in an hour.
I still remember the day we had that most rare of occurrences: A Boston police cruiser patrolling our street (it's a pretty safe street in the middle of nowhere). Slowed down in front of our place, then pulled over and a cop got out and wrote our neighbor a ticket because he was parked facing traffic in front of his house.
Yes, it's against the law. But it was still odd and completely random. And it's never happened again.
My street in West Roxbury has the name "Avenue" but it is just wide enough for cars parked on each side of the street and one lane down the middle. Houses have 55' frontage. The curbs are full with cars parked in front of their own homes. There is little if any traffic beyond traffic to or from my street. People approach their homes from either direction and park in front. If the law exists for safety reasons, I fail to see what safety reason is served in this case. My neighbor across the street does it too. He is a BPD officer.
Rita puts out? Is that in the lyrics... "may I inquire discretely, when are you free to take some tea with me..." (looks around frantically for British slang dictionary)
Took her out and tried to win her
Had a laugh and over dinner
Told her I would really like to see her again
Got the bill and Rita paid it
Took her home I nearly made it
Sitting on the sofa with a sister or two
All the city needs to do is park a patrol car just beyond the corner of Ashford and Malvern in Allston, a one-way intersection that about a hundred people a day sail through in the wrong direction. We'd have a city budget surplus by the end of the first month.
Comments
Background info
A $100 parking ticket? Searching for revenues, Boston considers hiking fines.
It is Fine vs A fine?
I think raising pkg tickets to find money for the state is just another *tax* on the residents. I hate to cry poor me or poor drivers but it just seems between the poential gas tax it makes me have serious anxiety.
Please Explain
It is pretty well understood that private vehicles are the most heavily tax-subsidized class of transportation. The cost of maintining the infrastructure and services that support driving are well beyond the level of state and federal gasoline taxes and other fees and taxes, and have been for decades.
Please explain why you think that taxpayers who drive far less than you do should continue to subsidize you to the degree that we do.
Some reading on the subject:
imo
Not all taxes are for services you use. Everyone pays taxes etc for many things they don't use. This is just one thing you go out of your way to not use so it seems ridiculous. It is one thing I do use and it seems ridiculous to me. It's all a matter of opinion and they are like A** holes....
Service you use?
What's the service you use, again? Automobile escort service? Exclusive fire hydrant spots?
If you get parking tickets it's because you broke the law. That's not a service. That's misbehavior.
is $100 cruel and inhuman
I think the question is whether $100 is a reasonable penalty for violating parking rules not whether violating parking rules is a violation of, well parking rules.
Reasonable
How does one determine what is reasonable? Perhaps comparison is a good method.
The base fine for speeding is 100 dollars. It goes up from there.
Is parking in front of a fire hydrant, blocking a crosswalk, or blocking a wheelchair ramp less of a nuisance to society and public safety than keeping up with traffic on 128?
Overtime Parking?
Are the fines for parking beyond your metered time going to increase?
I have no problem with fining the hell out of folks who park in handicapped spots illegally, or who block crosswalks and fire hydrants - we drivers know damn well those things are illegal, and if you do them, you deserve to be reamed - but I have a major problem with the city extracting exorbitant fines from the pockets of those who parked in legal spaces and who may be a few minutes late getting back to their cars.
Perhaps a sliding scale, dependent upon the amount of overage, would be fair.
Anyway, is this part of the package being considered?
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
for the record
since this is all about me I don't get parking tickets and I would never ever even think of breaking Any law nor am I exceedingly anything, ever.
on the other hand; I'd love a police escort at any given time, it seems fun!
So why
does it make you have serious anxiety?
It makes me have no anxiety whatsoever. I'd be thrilled if more revenue came from lawbreakers instead of good citizens. It serves a dual function, discouraging bad behavior and lowering my costs.
Not a matter of opinion
You are complaining about having to pay a tiny bit more toward your fair share in an exceedingly entitled fashion. That is an opinion.
That you are operating in a regime heavily subsidized by others is a fact.
really?
"excitingly entitled" is an opinion. puh-leeze.
really
you need new glasses is a fact
more coffee?
you seem a little chippy today.
I'm enjoying the tete-a-tete by swirly and femmme. they are both clever and insightful intellects.
Not enough coffee in the world
to make me clever and insightful. As for being a small fish-and-chips establishment, not enough malt vinegar in the world.
small fry?
hardly. Your two clever jokes remind me of a scene in the bird cage?
p1: why are you chewing gum?
p2: chewing gum helps me think.
p1: try more gum
tet a la pin-tet
None here, its all a matter of opinion and in the end I will feel the same. My taxes are high enough, my job doesnt pay, whaa whaa whaa. I should be a politician:P
The frikin end.
Im moving on to turkey news
A tax on the residents?
Nah. I'm a resident. Not just that, but an owner. Not just that but an owner of a driveway. And this isn't going to cost me a dime.
I'm all for higher parking tickets, especially if it means the cops will come tow the massholes who sometimes park in or in front of my driveway. That would be a benefit to me, not a cost.
It would be a tax if everybody had to pay it in the course of some legal and legitimate activity. But they don't. Only people who break the law have to pay it. Call it a penalty. Call it a fee for service. I'll call it a great source of government revenue because it's coming from only nuisance people and not from me.
Maybe next they can institute a $100 fine for not picking up your dog's business.
That's absurd
Romney-esque increases in standard fees for government services is a tax on residents. Raising the penalty for a parking violation isn't. Not even remotely. A fee and a fine are fundamentally different. I'm much happier with increasing fines, because if you obey the law, then it doesn't effect you. If I need a state ID, I have no choice but to pay the increased fee to get one. If I don't want to pay an increased parking fine, then I park legally. And none of that, "oh but its so hard" nonsense. Plenty of people suck it up and obey the law when its inconvenient to them, so I've no sympathy for those who put their desires first. Well, here is your penalty. I don't even see how $100 is supposed to be that high. It is a fine, after all. Its not supposed to be painless.
Does Flaherty think people
Does Flaherty think people are entitled to park in illegal spaces?
Also, how much is a fine now in a residential area? Someone told me 25$ the other day, which means its cheaper to park and get a ticket around Fenway than it is to pay for game parking.
Rozzie shocker
This past Friday, I saw something I'd never seen before in my 14 years here: A vehicle with a Denver Boot (on Cummins Highway near the Irving Middle School). I guess you can't outrun the long arm of the parking enforcement officer anymore.
It's $40
I got one the other day. Fortunately, work paid for it, but they aren't generally in the habit of doing this.
BTW, I'm all for raising parking fines, especially for stuff like accessibility ramps, accessible parking spots, fire hydrants, blocking driveways, etc. But if they're going to do it, they also need to take care of the shitload of meters that won't register your quarter but don't show that they're out of order either so you get ticketed anyway, and consistently maintain the signs that have fallen down or been stolen or whatever but they still ticket you based on your psychic ability to know that it's a resident spot or one-hour spot or whatever.
Also, it would be nice if the city offered some sort of permits for folks (visiting nurses, supported housing folks, case managers, etc.) whose jobs require that they visit homes back to back all day. These jobs are paid for by state contracts, but the agencies definitely don't make enough to pay for parking tickets or parking in a lot, and the workers certainly don't. My job involves some home visiting, and they'll periodically pay for tickets for parking in a resident spot if it was because a home assessment or something absolutely had to get done that day, but otherwise, they really don't have the money, so we either pay it ourselves or have to reschedule on a family, which is really disrespectful and unprofessional. Our productivity requirements are of course really high, since the state doesn't put a whole lot of money toward human services, so we don't have enough time in our schedules to take the T and still be able to see everyone.
You know, just in case da mayuh read UH or anything. ;-)
$100 Fine for Worst Offenses Only
The parking fines haven't gone up in 15 years or so that I recall (please correct me if I'm having a midlife moment on that!). These new ones seem consistent with "promised" fines that I've seen in other cities like NYC, Chicago, SFO, etc.
The $100 would NOT be for the standard "oops, didn't feed the meter" lapse. $100 would be for Massic Self-Important Classhole parking - blocking fire hydrants, wheelchair ramps and spaces, etc. If it gets entitled arseholes out of places they don't belong, three cheers.
As for a "tax", well, no. Unlike the gas price death trap that many are suddenly realizing that they live in, this isn't one you have to pay if you have to use a car. I think any price should come with a requirement to upgrade and maintain signage, though.
Ah!
I see the answer to my query above. Thank you.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
If the city enforced the
If the city enforced the parking rules in the southwestern neighborhoods, they could make back a good amount of lost revenue while still giving law-abiding taxpayers more bang for their buck. The resources aren't there for round-the-clock checks but even twice a month would generally keep most people honest.
incentive to comply
My proposal is to raise the price of parking violations by inflation plus 3 percent. Who is getting raises in excess of 3%?
The purpose of a fine is to penalize the behavior and create an incentive that encourages compliance.
The purpose is not to fill the city's coffers in a budget crisis.
Where do we find the balance for a parking violation? Should the penalty exceed the cost of using a private lot ($25,$30)? Probably. Should it be $1000? $500? 250?, No too much.
I'll stick with inflation plus 3%.
I wonder ...
Is it more cost-effective to raise the fines or hire more people to write more tickets?
Leverage technology
as a force multiplier. CCTV with automated video analysis could easily detect lawbreakers in targeted spots, beam alerts to Lovely Rita via wifi, and save on cruise time.
(Sorry, mixing business with pleasure again.)
not either/or
I suspect it's not an either/or but how much of each.
Vast areas of Boston are not patrolled for ticketing. I was in Allston and parked on a street that doesn't usually get patrolled for parking violations. It did that day. (I'm from WR so my WR resident sticker was of no use in Allston.) I'll bet the guy wrote 50 tickets in an hour.
Same in Charlestown
In a single year of occasional parking in Resident or 2hr parking, each of my coworkers has received one $20 ticket.
Pretty good price for parking, that.
Random patrolling
I still remember the day we had that most rare of occurrences: A Boston police cruiser patrolling our street (it's a pretty safe street in the middle of nowhere). Slowed down in front of our place, then pulled over and a cop got out and wrote our neighbor a ticket because he was parked facing traffic in front of his house.
Yes, it's against the law. But it was still odd and completely random. And it's never happened again.
pinched for $20
I've gotten a ticket for parking the wrong way in front of my home too. In my opinion, it's an antiquated parking law.
Antiquated? How?
I'd be interested to hear your rationale.
My street in West Roxbury
My street in West Roxbury has the name "Avenue" but it is just wide enough for cars parked on each side of the street and one lane down the middle. Houses have 55' frontage. The curbs are full with cars parked in front of their own homes. There is little if any traffic beyond traffic to or from my street. People approach their homes from either direction and park in front. If the law exists for safety reasons, I fail to see what safety reason is served in this case. My neighbor across the street does it too. He is a BPD officer.
Lovely Rita
would have a license to print money in Rossie square.
Nah ...
She'd write her quota in an hour and spend the rest of the shift boinking local musicians.
Ah
But that's what makes her so lovely, innit?
Rita puts out?
Rita puts out? Is that in the lyrics... "may I inquire discretely, when are you free to take some tea with me..." (looks around frantically for British slang dictionary)
Close
Those darn sisters getting in the way ...
damn
Rita's pesky sisters. He should have offered them ten quid to spend at the corner pub for a pint or two.
Just the place for her
In that abandoned gas station across from the park.
Now that
is decidedly unlovely.
Someone is imagining a very low-rent Rita.
printing money
All the city needs to do is park a patrol car just beyond the corner of Ashford and Malvern in Allston, a one-way intersection that about a hundred people a day sail through in the wrong direction. We'd have a city budget surplus by the end of the first month.