BTD

Fire gives the boot to city pickup in Brigham Circle

Debooted

Shawn Foster snapped the results of a fire this afternoon in a BTD pickup used to install and pick up Denver boots. Michael Ratty spotted the fire on the Brigham and Women's side of the circle from his office window.

Smoke plume

Citizen complaint of the day: Who tickets the ticketers?

An aghast citizen snaps a photo of a BTD van making an illegal right turn on red at Stuart and Dartmouth:

The light was red and there is a clear no right on red sign and a walk sign. There were pedestrians in the crosswalk.

Last day of the month and the meter maids must be scrambling to make their quotas

We live on one of those out-of-the-way Roslindale streets that almost nobody drives on unless they either live here or on one of the even smaller side streets off of it. And since it's all single and two-family homes with driveways, there aren't any parking problems. The only problem we do have is the road is two way, but isn't really wide enough for that, so people who do park in the street sometimes pull up on the sidewalk to keep their side mirrors from getting clipped (me, I'm grateful I now have a car with a side mirror you can fold flat; the old car had the mirror ripped off three or four times).

We NEVER see meter maids up here. Well, up until about 40 minutes ago, when a BTD van pulled up and parked on the wrong side of the road. Dour meter maid (hmm, are there any other kinds?) got out, promptly dashed out a ticket on her ticket gizmo for one of our neighbors, whose car is partly up on the sidewalk (which still had plenty of room for somebody to walk on). I saw her eying another neighbor's car across the street. Tried to beat her across, get the neighbor out, but either his bell doesn't work or he wasn't home. Another victory for the city coffers!

The meter maid looked around, didn't see any other nefarious evil doers afoot, got into her illegally parked van and zoomed off.

The men and women of the Boston Transportation Department have no fear

Ticketed trooper

Kevin Lee took this photo (click on it for a larger version) by the State House today.

City to Fort Point: You're part of South Boston and that's that

Fort Point Blog reports BTD is working to increase the number of resident-only parking spaces in the neighborhood, but has rejected local requests to start issuing Fort Point resident stickers, rather than continuing to give residents South Boston stickers:

Their position is that South Boston is one neighborhood and will not be separated.

BTD car needs BTD tow

Smashed BTD car

Eric Stratton took this photo of a smashed Boston Transportation Department car following a four-car collision at Ruggles shortly after 4 p.m. today. No immediate word on the cause.

No doubt there's a good reason for a BTD worker to park in a bus stop

Just because I can't think of one doesn't mean there isn't one. So why would a Boston Transportation Department worker block a Brighton Center bus stop and force a guy with a cane into the street to board a 57 bus?

jerk

Oh, of course there's a good reason! As the person who took the photo explains:

The BTD truck driver was parking to buy scratch tickets and ignored the man with the cane that was waiting for the bus. He threw the ticket out the window into the back of his truck afterwards.

Here's his license plate, should anybody at BTD wish to inquire:

jerk

BTD: we can illegally park near hospitals, ha ha!

This street (Longwood Avenue- Google Streetview avoided part of it) is extremely congested. It's also one of two ways to get into the emergency room for Children's Hospital. The lanes are small on this three lane road, and the whole thing is marked no-parking.

But hey: the balding, grey-haired, bespectacled masshole owner of Boston Transportation Department Vehicle with plate # 3045 (who encouraged me to "go ahead and report the tags" but wouldn't tell me his name) apparently feels "it is [a parking space] for me", and parked blocking 1/2 of the only lane going towards the hospitals, and making it dangerous for bicyclists who need that space. He was busy chatting it up with a bunch of other people in suits and ties in front of the Mass College of Pharmacy. Commish, was that you? Maybe that gut wouldn't be so big if you found a proper parking space like everyone else, and walked. Always nice to see the rules mercilessly apply to us, but not to you?