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Citizen complaint of the day: The screamiest street in Boston, thanks to guy who can't parallel park

An annoyed citizen complains about what has become a nightly ritual on Haynes Street in East Boston:

Commercial vehicle in resident parking, vehicle is parked overnight, everynight, shows up and struggles to parrellel park for 15-20 minutes with loud back-up beeper despite scores of neighbors screaming and yelling at him. He swears at them and walks away.

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Comments

No one on Haynes Street knows how to slash a few tires?

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Isn't that area all permit parking? If so, I'd have it ticketed and towed, because he either doesn't have a permit, or illegally has one on a commercial vehicle.

Eastie parking in general has been getting ridiculous over the past year, both in number of cars and terrible parking jobs that collectively eat up a lot of extra spaces.

Note: This comment was meant for the main thread, not in response to the post above. Though that method certainly works as well.

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I'm not from the area, but on Google Street View, it looks like the only restriction is that you can't park longer than 2 hours during the day without a resident permit.

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I'm pretty sure (translation: "I tried to look it up but it wasn't obvious) that If the vehicle is registered to an address in the district and the vehicle is principally garaged in the district, then a vehicle with commercial plates is still eligible for a permit.

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So you're telling me that Boston has a convoluted, partially-efficient at best permit system in place?

Shenanigans.

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This particular aspect isn't convoluted. If the vehicle is registered to an address in the district and if it is principally garaged in the district, it's eligible for a permit. Whether it has commercial plates or not is irrelevant.

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anywhere that confirms this.

Not saying you're wrong, just that whether or not a commercial vehicle is allowed a resident permit in Boston is not clearly stated anywhere online, including the Boston parking website. So I suppose while that part isn't convoluted per say, it certainly isn't clear to those who would like to do something about it IF it isn't legal.

Back to the original complaint then, I guess the questions would be does the vehicle have and/or require a resident permit. I honestly don't know the answer to the latter because I never really drive down to that part of the neighborhood, and I have a permit regardless so wouldn't even look at the signs. Then, does it violate any noise ordinance? That starts a debate over that annoying-yet-very useful backup beep being required, etc. (see comment threads below).

I'm not against this guy having a place to park his vehicle that may be for both personal and business use at all if he lives over there and if it is in line with city regulations, but the people who live in the neighborhood also shouldn't be subjected to the noise late at night either. At the very least, he shouldn't be an asshole about it when they complain, if what the original complaint says about his response is true.

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You are almost right. A business that can legally be run out of a residence could have a vehicle regisytered to the address. Here's the rub for this guy...the company on the side of the 5 ton box truck in question was called and they claim they sold the truck.In Boston, a commercial vehicle must have the name and phone number of the business on the side. Not add one businessut THE business This guy may not even be legally registered.

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The truck was ticketed this morning.

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How many injuries have they prevented, and how many have they caused?

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How many lives did they save? How much terror have they caused?

Backup beepers are another layer of gross electronic noise.

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I had a friend who bought an old van with one of those beepers. If you held the gearshift juuuuuust right, you could back up without engaging the beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep. Not sure if that's true of every vehicle, but it certainly saved a lot of annoyance in that van.

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This would drive me absolutely nuts. I don't even like when cars honk or beep late at night when someone locks the doors with a remote.

Backup beepers should come with an off switch. Are they usually part of the white reverse tail light assembly? If so, the neighbors might be able to fix this problem with a screwdriver and some wire cutters.

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There's a legal requirement for these beeping mechanisms, and there's also a legal requirement for one to not tamper with/destroy someone else's property. Who said this guy wants to hear the beeping either? I'm sure he doesn't.

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so that they don't, under any circumstances, go off between 9 pm and 8 am.

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So the times when there's low visibility and would be most effective?

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"1926.601(b)(4)
No employer shall use any motor vehicle equipment having an obstructed view to the rear unless:
1926.601(b)(4)(i)
The vehicle has a reverse signal alarm audible above the surrounding noise level or:
1926.601(b)(4)(ii)
The vehicle is backed up only when an observer signals that it is safe to do so."

What counts as an obstructed view to the rear? Today I saw a commercial van back up with no beeping.

What if the box truck in question had a backup camera installed?

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