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Changing lanes: Boston to try to speed bus service; charge parking violators more

Mayor Walsh today announced a series of steps aimed at speeding bus service in Boston, which he'll pay for in part by increasing parking fines.

An entirely new department of six people will work with the MBTA on steps such as dedicated bus lanes - starting with a pilot along Washington Street between Forest Hills and Roslindale Square - and synchronized lights aimed at letting buses get through intersections faster. Four people will be assigned just to overseeing development of the dedicated bus lanes.

Walsh estimates increases in parking fines will not only help reduce street congestion but pay for other work, to the tune of $5 million a year. "No Parking" violations would jump from $55 to $90 downtown and from $25 to $55 in outlying areas, for example. Overstaying a visit at a meter would cost you $40, rather than the current $25. [Complete list of fine increases]

Don't worry, drivers: The mayor says he will set aside $2 million of the new revenue for road resurfacing and to hire three new workers for traffic signals - one engineer to "manage and retime" lights to better speed traffic and two to repair and install signals.

Also in the works: $750,000 in new funding for better walkways, $400,000 to create new pedestrian and bike paths to parks and existing paths, including the Roxbury-Fenway Connector linking the Southwest Corridor and the Emerald Necklace; the Roslindale Gateway path; and a multi-use path connecting Fenway and Yawkey Stations, and $300,000 in new funding for bike-specific paths.

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Comments

Why doesn't this nitwit ever discuss the effect TNC's have had on Boston traffic? And how about that tepid amount for bike lanes?

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Or this is a big step from a mayor who had been otherwise reluctant to embrace non-car modes of travel. Let’s build off this very welcome news and convince him there’s support for these measures instead of poo poo-ing it because it’s not immediately everything that’s necessary.

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Sure. Mahty has had an epiphany since he tried to rip up the Seaport with Indy cars.Uh-huh. The man can barely use opposable thumbs and is a crooked as the day is long but he throws a bone at the bike crowd and all is forgotten?

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Other cites host these races and they a big draw and a lot of fun. Pearl clutchers like yourself always say Not In Boston! Then you also complain and the ass backward ways the city does stuff.

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That's a first. And other cities don't have roads that were developed when horses were still the primary mode of transportation. Finally, you pay for an Indy Car race when kids have to take the T to get to school in this town.

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What was the main source of transportation when Monaco was founded?

That the City had to make financial guarantees of any sort was bad, but yes, those who just up and thought that racing on the streets of a relatively recently developed part of Boston was horrible were clutching their pearls. And to circle things back to the topic at hand, a lot of the countries that hose Formula One races have the transportation policies that many of the car hates hereabouts would love to see adopted.

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and I confess to a certain vicarious thrill having had a pit pass at a NASCAR race, but this is downtown Boston, not Talladega. Bad idea all around, and you want those thrills, go through the O'Neil after 10PM. Everybody thinks they're at Talladega.

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It continues to be very controversial there, according to my Montréal amis. Lots of public subsidies.

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Are you kidding me? Have you noticed the miles and miles of bike lanes that Walsh has added and the re-routing of traffic patterns to accommodate cyclists? Which is fine by me, as I think bike safety is important. Why aren't you giving him credit though? Strange. What I do not agree with however, are all of the giant tacky illuminated advertisements in the way of pedestrians which Walsh permitted in very heavily PEDESTRIAN traffic areas of the city just because bike share companies wanted them. And now after we city residents who walk have to deal with that, bike share companies are going to paint their rental bikes with advertisements regardless! AND, what's further baffling, people who PAY to rent bikes are going to PAY to do free work for Blue Cross Blue Shield! Talk about moronic. Wake up to yourselves.

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The worst of the city's sidewalk billboards have nothing to do with bikes. https://goo.gl/maps/tdsCmkPjyH62

The map isn't 12 feet tall, so why does the ad kiosk have to be?

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Most of the bike lanes are useless, especially if you want to teach your kids to ride only in the bike lane when biking alone.

The ones on Columbus Ave between Mass Ave and Back Bay typically have UPS and USPS trucks parked in them. The USPS carrier near Columbus and Mass Ave parks her truck in the bike lane each day and walks her route for an hour. UPS parks in them and makes shorter deliveries, but they're a lot longer than jumping out and running to a door.

The ones on Mass Ave near Berklee usually have delivery trucks parked in them, with ramps pulled out and people wheeling cases of stuff into businesses.

The ones on MLK are constantly full of parked and double-parked vehicles. People park overnight in them. The police often park their cruisers in the bike lane near the chicken place.

The ones on Seaver St near the church are constantly full of standing and parked cars.

The ones on Blue Hill near the roti place usually have a whole line of cars in them.

I 311 these every time I see them, which is most days, since we bike as our primary mode of transportation. They respond and say they went out and tagged X number of cars. Or they say the truck, which I captured with the license plate, was no longer there. A few times I've included in my report that state law allows them to mail parking tickets with photographic evidence. The response is still that it was no longer there.

I have yet to see any enforcement of these areas when I don't 311 them. People know that it's fine to park in bike lanes and they know people are rarely ticketed.

I like to do the math when I'm riding. If I ride for half an hour, and I see 20 bike lane violators, and we ticket them $10 each, that would be way more than enough revenue to pay someone to ride the same route I did and issue tickets. The tickets would clearly be more than that, so it would be well worth the city's money. They could hire several dozen people to just ride loops in these areas for a few months, then scale it back once people know not to park there. Bike infrastructure would be safer, and the city could make a ton of money.

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Years ago when I lived in Jersey City NJ, a very large proportion of drivers would run or roll through stop signs as if it were their god-given right. Myself and other citizens often suggested that the city's budget problems could be solved overnight if the police ever bothered to enforce the law -- all they'd need is one cop on the corner radioing another a block down and it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel. Someone even set up a camera and counted at least one blown stop sign per minute - in theory, police could spend all day writing tickets with zero downtime between stops.

Why they don't exploit potential goldmines like this, I don't know. The least cynical explanation I can conjure is that police are hesitant to enforce laws in a way that opposes the local driving culture. More cynical possibilities range from sheer laziness to unwillingness to enforce the law when the ability to discriminate on the basis of race and class is reduced, as is the case for such an equal-opportunity infraction. Casting a wide net would mean occasionally stumbling upon people with warrants, and perhaps the cops like to minimize such potentially dangerous surprises.

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Walsh and Boston realize that they cannot rely on the state. Baker's filled MassDOT with donor-patronage picks. Kudos to Boston. Good move

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Excellent news. This will help the people who responsibly travel by public transit, foot or bike while only negatively affecting drivers who break the law and endanger others. If they really want this to work they need to hire dozens more people to write tickets. It would generate so many millions for the city because you can't walk a block in Boston without seeing a driver breaking a law.

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BPD/BTD could really do some great impact by ticketing all the double parking that goes on up and down BU's stretch of Comm Ave, because BUPD has zero interest in enforcing the law there.

Also getting all the double parking would really help traffic, its daily that the 57 bus gets delayed by ubers/taxis doing pickups and dropoffs and all the large delivery trucks that force traffic into one lane. Oh hey and cracking down on double parking would mean emergency vehicles would have an easier time getting through, since safety is such a big concern!

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The intersection of Comm Ave and Washington Street is a gold mine too, with everyone who runs the light across Comm Ave. Only problem is they'd have to actually get people to stop in order to ticket them.

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install cameras and ticket based on plate #.

I am no fan of Marty but this is fantastic news!! I recommend we add an additional $10 fee for every sticker on the car that is related to a boston sportsball team. also, if there is no resident sticker...an additional $25.

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If delivery trucks have to double park on a regular basis, it means the city didn't allocate curb space properly.

There's some really terrible parking regulation in Boston. Lack of dropoff/loading zones is my biggest peeve.

For example, I have no idea how I would pick up an elderly relative at South Station without parking illegally. Even if I waited somewhere else and they called me from the curb, there's no legal place to stop for a quarter mile in any direction. https://goo.gl/maps/DzfnA3UiDw52 https://goo.gl/maps/NuAHfhU2ywk

Same goes for Tufts Dental School, where it's all 2 hour meters in front of the entrance on Washington, without a single loading zone space all the way up to the corner at Kneeland. And you can't double park without being a major traffic blockage. https://goo.gl/maps/PeWS9rfLSMB2

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Vehicles that don't fit in a parking space don't need to be in the city, except infrequently for deliveries of things like steel beams that have to be on a giant truck.

What needs to happen is, say, Starbucks orders 10 cases of milk. (I pick Starbucks because I once got pinned into a legal meter space by an 18-wheeler making a 15-minute delivery of a ton of shit into a Starbucks. The driver wouldn't move and the cop right there wouldn't ask him to, because "he has to do his job." The job I was late for didn't matter to this cop.) The company they order from only has big rigs. They say, where's a loading dock where I can legally deliver? They say, oh, we don't have one. Sorry, we can't deliver there then. So, they have to order from somewhere that uses vans or bikes. And companies that want to do business in the city will get vans and bikes. Oh, and make it a moving violation to block traffic. The drivers won't do any of that if they know it goes on their own driving record. The companies will learn really quick when they send out deliveries and their drivers aren't willing to make them, and they aren't able to ask their drivers to break the law.

Seriously, I don't get the whole "there's nowhere to legally/safely put this, so I'll just do whatever the fuck I want" mentality and why it's tolerated. Most of us don't get to just do whatever we want at our jobs.

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Deliveries of small items by giant trucks is a problem.

But it's not the only cause of double parking. There are plenty of times when a small truck has to double park because there is no loading zone on the block, or the zone is taken by another truck, yet there are plenty of metered spaces that could wb converted to loading new zones.

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How does a parking meter violation "endanger others"? This is out of control, anti-vehicle extremism, and based on false premises.

Transportation choices are made for a wide variety of reasons, and your allegations that those that chose public transportation are "responsible" are as false and simplistic as accusing those that choose cars are somehow irresponsible.

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Car culture has fundamentally changed how we look at transit and how we fund it. Because of years of doubling down on cars as the defacto way to move people about our communities, the alternates like public transit, walking and biking have been criminally underfunded and as a result, transportation "choices" are pretty narrow for people.

People who choose public transit ARE inherently more responsible to the great good of the city, because they aren't clogging up the roads with their metal boxes. Progressive changes like this, along with congestion pricing, road-diets and raising driving fees must happen so we can level the playing field of transit that for too long as only been focused on cars.

You're just upset because you feel entitled to park and drive wherever and whenever you want. The times are changing, literally get out of the roads of Boston if you don't want to lend a hand.

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I challenged Kinopio because he/she/ falsely accused parking meter violators of causing "danger to others" . That statement is false.

I substantially agree with your statement about the historical lack of funding for vehicle alternatives but you ruin your own argument by calling it "criminal", which is also false.

And you 're completely incorrect with your false assumption that I am "upset because you feel entitled to park and drive wherever and whenever you want" . You don't know me. You just made that up. I own a car but I often use the T, especially when I travel to downtown. I hardly ever park in areas that require me to feed the meter and the last time I got a parking ticket was 5 years ago. I don't care what the cost of a parking ticket is, and if it's higher it probably benefits me a taxpayer, because more revenue is being collected, potentially preventing a future real estate tax increase.

How about if I make some assumptions? You are a deadbeat that doesn't have a job and can't afford a car so you are jealous of those of us who have a job and own a car. How does that work for you? It makes as much sense as your nonsensical accusations.

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Build a bigger straw-man next time.

Its is criminal what the automobile industry has done to our communities and public transportation over the last several decades. I'm not here to convince you of that, just stating an obvious fact.

You're right about met not owning a car, I use Zipcar. I don't know you but you use the same talking points as entitled motorists, so forgive me for assuming.

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Kinopio said this change is "only negatively affecting drivers who break the law and endanger others". But the increased parking fines include people whose meters expire.

-a different anon

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So what was Kinopio talking about, if not reacting to the article? We both know the answer.

Your assertion that the automobile industry is criminal is completely unsupported by any facts. It is false, not a difference in opinion.

You say you use Zip Car. So in order to avoid being a hypocrite, please take your own advice and get off the roads. Sounds to me like you are an entitled driver who just cant afford a car.

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Can't tell with the anon post. (Totally not criticizing you for not having a login.)

Kiniopio and others in this thread, without putting words into their mouths, seem to be speaking about the driving entitlement and the attitudes it brings in this city. A crackdown on parking violations might cause the even more dangerous driving of motorists to be curtailed since they might under the concept of consequences.

Its well documented how the auto and oil industries have suppressed climate change mitigation, destroyed public transit systems, lobbied to steal streets away from the public and countless scandals where they have skirted regulations that resulted in dangerous and polluting that drastically impacted public health. Now they are running AVs with disabled safety systems that killed someone in Arizona. Its well documented and if you are too dense to understand it, I can't help you.

Just because I don't need a car doesn't mean its because I can't afford it. And more to the point, the Zipcar I use is parked in a private lot, so my parking isn't taking up public space.

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"driving entitlement and the attitudes it brings in this city".

When you and your ilk stop painting us who drive cars as evil incarnate, I will perhaps listen to you. Until then...

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You know exactly what I'm getting at there, yet choose to engage with disingenuous deflections.
You are part of the problem because you refuse to recognize the evils of car culture.

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Get over yourself. Having a car doesn't make you special. Driving your car doesn't make you special, either - it just makes you responsible for a potential death machine like carrying a gun does.

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They just aren't dumb enough to spend all the money to own one like you.

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As the article noted a proposed increase in parking fines, not fines for moving violations, Kinopio was in fact referencing fines that have no relation to the ability or lack of ability of drivers.

I mean, most people would leave it at a discussion of relative equity, but Kinopio gotta do what Kinopio gotta do.

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But as someone already said of me, you assume a lot.

This will help the people who responsibly travel by public transit, foot or bike while only negatively affecting drivers who break the law and endanger others. If they really want this to work they need to hire dozens more people to write tickets. It would generate so many millions for the city because you can't walk a block in Boston without seeing a driver breaking a law.

I don't think he makes a mention, one way or the other, regarding parking or moving violations. And yes while the headline article is mainly about parking violation enforcement, would Kinopio be wrong in both parking and moving violations causing safety issues?

More to the point of someone further down the thread, its a broken window theory. People see they can parking illegally and face few consequences, so they drive like that too.

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In fact, I and others are giving Kinopio credit enough by assuming that he read the article and knew what the increased fines were about. Therefore, he implies that people who park illegally are in fact menaces on the road. There is no proven correlation. I very rarely park where I'm not supposed to, but I routinely drive above the speed limit. Conversely, as someone else noted, a person dropping off or picking up someone from a doctor's appointment that might be blocking a fire hydrant could in fact be a conscientious driver.

In the end, he wanted to bash drivers. He did. He was called on it. And for some reason you can't figure out the logic used by the bashers. I gotta wonder if you read the article.

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Ride a bike and question a motorist's entitlement to double park in bike lanes sometime. See how much menace you receive in return.

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Your first sentence betrays that with the cheapshot at Kinopio. Doubly so when you question if I in fact read the article.

You've been around this forum, you know what I and others say regarding car-culture, its nothing new to you, you just choose to nit-pick individual narratives rather than the substance of whats being discussed. We are talking about safe streets both at the large and small side of things. The biggest threat to safety is reckless motorists, I say bash away.

Someone blocking a fire hydrant is in fact a non-conscientious driver. Its illegal and a public safety issue. Strange that you think otherwise.

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And you know what others say. That you love to rant about drivers is one thing, but calling someone who parks in a resident parking stop at threat is going way too far. I will admit that after I wrote about the fire hydrant I picked on the wrong offense. Interestingly, the fine for that is not proposed for an increase.

Let's look at these offenses that are so horribly bad, shall we. For the sake of not expecting people to click on the link Adam provided about, they are (1) resident parking, (2) no parking, (3) double parking (okay, that's a bad one, mainly because it causes automotive congestion, which you most likely support), (4) no stopping/standing, (5) meter violation, and (6) overnight street cleaning. Last I saw, no one was ever killed or injured by a car overstaying a meter, and certainly if the owner of a car doesn't move it in street sweeping day, green house gases are not released into the environment. By hey, haters have to hate, right?

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Cars parked illegally on the street delayed firefighters' attempts to rescue the girl.

"There are things that we can put in place. We have to have a community work with us on those procedures. We've tried to limit illegal parking. Double parking has always been a problem," Boston Mayor Tom Menino said. "We get calls and you can't stop it."

"We were on that street earlier that night and it was for a medical emergency. All the neighbors saw that it was a tough time getting down the street, but none of them moved their cars. Low and behold, we went back six hours later, and in that case, it didn't work out all that well. (The parked cars) delayed us," Engine 39 Lt. John Keeley said.

https://www.firehouse.com/home/news/10573990/boston-ma-girl-8-dies-of-fi...

Menino even says hey, the city can't do a lot here, the community needs to help. And low and behold, the entitlement of these people that they couldn't even move their cars for an emergency vehicle.

You think I want congestion? I hate congestion, try harder.

And if you really cared about green-house gas emissions, you'd want that car to have never been built in the first place, let only having driving on our streets.

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But what does the word “straw man” mean, anyways?

Also, Tom Menino died 4 years ago.

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I think you meant get "off" the roads. But either way, I have an idea. How about if you stop buying products transported by gasoline burning vehicles? No furniture, no clothes, no electronic devices, no food, no toilet paper, no nothing. That way you can be more "responsible"

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"Your old road is rapidly agin’ Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand."

https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha

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More assertions with no facts. Please explain why my talking points are bullshit. You rage against the machine, while enjoying the benefits the machine brings to your life. Reality bites doesnt it?

And the link to a lame cartoon is an interesting approach, but not even funny or successfully sarcastic. If you want to issue a retort with a cartoon, please find something better.

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The assertion that I cannot speak again car-culture while enjoy anything due to the benefits of fossil fuels is woefully ignorant and one dimensional.

We are more than capable of providing robust public transit, ways of delivering goods and still allowing people to drive their little metal boxes without ushering in a dark age without fossil fuels. Cities around the world have shown that you can build vibrant communities with multi-model means of moving people and goods that doesn't create safety issues, that work to mitigate climate change and above all, improve the quality of life. We don't need 18 wheelers running over citizens, last mile delivery logistics can and do easily meet those needs without clogging up our streets. Bus-lanes can be prioritized over parking of private vehicles so that we can move more people more efficiently than the little metal boxes that move 1 person. Congestion pricing and on-demand parking rates can help use the Free Market (oh yay!) to manage our precious public land and how its used for both parking and movement of private vehicles. Technology can help us analyze all these systems and respond to the ebs and flows of peoples needs on the road. The problem is, these solutions take political will power that seems reluctant to fight the car lobby that clings so dearly to these relics car-centric development and public policy.

I want to improve society slightly, yet you criticize me for participating in society. Do you see the disingenuous argument you are putting forth here? Of course you don't and its bullshit.

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If there were fewer private cars, and more daytime parking converted to loading zones, moving goods would be a hell of a lot easier.

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for saying that I am inherently more responsible to the great good of the city...however...

Your posts are very simplistic. While you have these great "it should be this way" ideas, the reality is that many people can't use public transportation (i.e cost prohibitive, time prohibitive, not available) and/or bike and/or walk to work. You might of not noticed, that the cost of living in and/or near the city is expensive and/or getting more prohibitive for many folks. So your ideas of "congestion pricing' and "raising driving fees" will be a burden to many trying to make ends meet. You do realize that many people can't afford to live near where they work and thus need to drive to work. You might of not noticed how bad it is to drive now (i.e. recent articles about how our roads are getting more clogged) and it appears to be getting worse. So do you think having "road-diets" is fair to those who do have no choice but to drive by cutting down on the number of lanes they can travel and causing them to spend additional time commuting due to your "road diets"? You speak about the climate; do you realize the more cars sit and idle in traffic jams how that is not conducive to healthy air?

Comparing the U.S. with other countries is an exercise in frustration. Other countries have a much more progressive tax structure that pay for great transit and/or different priorities than us, city and town lay outs, you name it. We are not there yet.

You last comment is telling. Times are always changing, my friend, but your message of telling me to get out of the way or you and your ilk will steam roll over me, is disconcerting and, quite frankly, lends me to say to you "screw you" and the alternative mode of transportation you road in on.

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As much as it pains me to say this, you are right about other countries having more progressive tax structures and a cultural/political will to build the needed public (and hell in some cases, privately run) transit systems. Sure there is still transit inequality in places like Paris and London but they are taking progressive measures to tackle that. But why should that be the end of the argument? We once had a robust network of streetcars and suburbs built around those systems, whats stopping it is car-culture and this obsession with personal transit, again something not uniquely American but sadly something more prevalent here. Are you saying Americans/Bostonians are not capable of innovative ways of solving a problem like other cities and countries can and have?

But this idea that congestion pricing and higher road fees burdening the poorest is yet another talking point used to discourage policies that can and do work in other cities. You know damn well that expanded technology and data sets can ensure that pricing is done in an economical way that doesn't burden those most in need of transit. And getting people out of cars and into better funded alternatives frees up road space for others, it makes people consider when and if they should drive and the premium that would come from that.

Its a self-perpetuating problem, public transit is woefully underfunded and forces people into cars, which means less funding for public transit which makes it unreliable which forces people into cars and on and on and on. Forcing people further and further out of the city and further and further away from a transit system that hasn't meaningfully expanded to meet the expanding population getting further and further away from Boston. More people are working here, over 300,000 more in the last decade and tied to those issues are the housing needs we have, which should be built around expanding our transit system but we don't because development here is ad-hoc and piecemeal.

I guess we should just throw up our hands and admit defeat. I mean you must have some ideas to resolve this, right? Do we just double down on the status quo and pray things get better?

I don't believe you want to have an honest conversation about this, sprinkled in your posts are little gotcha talking points that have been explained away on this very forum and yet you continue to parrot them and claim moral victory over the evil safe-streets zealots.

And regarding the Bob Dylan lyrics, it was quite literally a quip about getting parked private cars out of the way for more meaningful infrastructure but whatever.

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People see that they can park illegally without consequences, and they start to figure they can also run stop signs, ignore crosswalks, text while driving, and hit-and-run pedestrians without consequences too. The fact that they're usually right doesn't mean we can't start somewhere.

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It also encourages a "fuck you, got mine" all for oneself mindset among drivers, where you have to be uber aggressive because nobody else will play by the reasonable rules then the only way to play is to cheat (see, areas where blocking the box is rampant, and you will never get to pull out if you don't participate).

People then park too close to hydrants, too close to corners (blocking visibility), and partially block bus stops, forcing buses to discharge / pick up in the street. All of those are safety violations

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because most people "play by the reasonable rules".

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and report back about "playing by "reasonable" rules".

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We are talking about Boston. Stay on topic.

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Humans that follow rules and humans that say that they can't be expected to follow rules.

Stay on topic.

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O, we are talking about Boston. This is uhub.

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It would generate so many millions for the city because you can't walk a block in Boston without seeing a driver breaking a law.

Sure - as long as they include the ones driving bicycles.

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I tell you what, I'll stop riding above the city-wide speed limit of 25 and drivers can do the same. I'd gladly submit my cycling to ticketing if that one major safety point could be universally followed by drivers.

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Just so long as the cops know that it IS legal for a cyclist to pass an ILLEGALLY parked vehicle on the left hand side, and other cycling specific rules, we are good.

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$5mm a year in increased revenues, for about $2 million in actual improvements and the hiring of 24-30 more hacks for the city payroll.

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There should be a car crusher installed at Forrest Hills used to penalize those who block the box by running yellow lights into congestion.

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They painted boxes on a number of major intersections, put up signs indicating the fine if you stop in the intersection, and during rush hour I have *YET* to see a cop just stand on the corner and start handing out violations. What's the point of all the scare tactics if you aren't going to follow through?

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I think the issue is that a cop can give a ticket but then if the motorist contests the citation the cop has to go to court, etc... so it's very inefficient and expensive.

I don't know why this can't be structured like parking tickets where you can contest via mail but not tying up the meter reader to have to come to court.

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Cities and towns have no motivation to ticket because they lose money in doing so - the state keeps all the money or all but $25 of it.

Legislators don't want to change this because they can blame everything on Baker while they themselves continue to ignore the driving laws.

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That's not the issue at all. The only inefficiency and expense is for the person appealing the ticket. Did you know that you have to pay a fee to challenge a traffic ticket, even if you're found not responsible?

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so then is the reason BPD / Boston don't aggressively ticket is the reason stated above- the city only gets $25 of the fine? That's a bizarre and bad rule.

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there is no fee to challenge a parking ticket.

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Blocking the box is a movie violation not a parking ticket and that carries a filing fee. Keep up with the conversation or shut up.

https://www.mass.gov/how-to/appeal-your-traffic-ticket

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Not good. I hear those can Affleck your insurance rates.

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Damn auto correct. Or is it Damon auto correct? Doh!

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Just want to point out that the city has yet to live up to its promise of ticketing and towing during snow emergencies. This is nice but let see the follow through. right now it rings hollow

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This is awesome. I've heard multiple people say that because of the low fines, some drivers park illegally and get a ticket because it's still cheaper than parking off-street. This will not only discourage that behavior but will also fund much needed transportation improvements.

Now, can we please get parking enforcement and meters to run on Sundays? Right now, Sundays are a total crap show of illegal parking.

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They'd have to pay for staff at overtime rates so it's probably not worth it.

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Why would they? I can almost always find a spot wherever I'm going on a Sunday, even without most of the regulations being enforced.

If anything, Sundays make a good argument that most parking enforcement is revenue-driven first and foremost.

Cities work when people and things can get to where they need to be. That often requires cars (and god forbid, trucks) to spend short amounts of time at various locales picking up and dropping off people and goods. See how many places will deliver to your house when they're treated with a $60 resident parking ticket for a 2 minute stop.

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They're only low if you make a lot of money.

I have a hard time with the idea that any one-time violation not associated with safety (fire lane, blocking a corner, a crosswalk, etc) would be more than $20. As far as people who overstay at meters - $20 initial fine, additional $50 fine if you're still there after 2 hours. Same with resident parking. $20 when you're spotted, $50 if you're still there after 2 hours.

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If Walsh is looking for more revenue, then all he has to do is take the policy for Charlestown make it the standard for the whole city.

If you don't move your car in Charletown, and it's street sweeper day, you get slapped with a $100 ticket. If you do the same in Brighton, you get a $40 ticket and you get towed. The tow truck charge you $144 and change to get your car back. The towing company gets all that money. In Charlestown, at least the the city gets all the money. Why don't they do that everywhere?

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Or you know, you just get more tickets and never towed, as the car in front of my house with 3 tickets on it has been doing.

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Contractors and FedEx drivers don't care... have you seen the number of tickets they have piling up on their vans? Increasing fine won't change a thing. Contractors illegally park all day at meters and residential spots and FedEx drivers double-park all the time causing backups and congestion.

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Another post guaranteed to bring in those clicks that keep our humble webmaster bathing in Cristal. And like privileged lemmings, they jump right off the cliff eagerly!

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On being above that, must be awesome

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It kind of is.

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We wouldn't need this revenue if we stopped bribing corporations like GE and Amazon.

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Boy that was a stretch!

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There are surveillance cameras installed at virtually every major intersection in the city. Why not use them to enforce moving violations, e.g., blowing through red lights, not slowing down at yellow lights, blocking the intersection, turning from the wrong lane, etc.?

If we have to live in a security state, we'd might as well make the most of it.

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Unconstitutional, actually. You can't face your accuser.

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Youre talking about the little cameras that simply exist to see if a vehicle is waiting at the light. Those have webcam quality resolution, and couldnt ticket a 747.

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Uber/Lyft drivers are clogging traffic everywhere, just stopping in traffic lanes. Give them huge tickets they deserve.

The other tickets are just a reminder to not visit or do business in Boston. It's just increasing taxes on non-residents instead of residents who he needs to re-elect him.

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OK, how does increasing the fine for being at a meter too long help bus traffic?

Wanna speed up the busses, and everything else? Tell the meter enforcers to go after the double-parkers ON SIGHT and go back to the poor schumcks who lost track of time later.

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That part was talking about the personal property items that are illegally stored in bus stops because somebody can't walk a block or two to buy their ciggies or is too special to park, lock, and walk.

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Sorry to compare Boston to its neighbor to the south once again, but I've been very impressed by the work of NYPD's Citywide Traffic Task Force. They blitz Midtown Manhattan before rush hour every day, pulling people over for running red lights, blocking the box, improper turns, driving in the bus lane, etc. They are full-time police officers who use everything from Smart Cars to SUVs as cruisers. They also wade in traffic and pull people over while on foot!

NYPD also has its Traffic Division, similar to BTD, which tickets parking violations. The traffic agents also have squad cars with sirens and loudspeakers that are used to chase cars out of bus lanes and bus stops, but traffic agents don't have the authority to pull people over or issue moving violations.

These two systems work pretty well together.

Boston has an obvious gap between community policing and parking enforcement, and almost every motorist exploits that gap at every opportunity. It threatens public safety and ultimately makes it harder to get around.

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And things might change.

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NYPD...

Don't forget the special programming to ticket out-of-state cars first!

- spoken as an involuntary customer

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Out of state first? Maybe because people from out of state don't take the road laws, signs, and markings seriously like NY people have to?

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Evidence?

You mean evidence of how the parking officer went past three cars with NY plates at the beginning of the block that had done the same thing I did, to ticket my car with out-of-state plates in the middle of the block? Evidence like the photos I took and sent in with my appeal?

We were visiting my father-in-law. It was alternate-side-parking on his block, I had to come down and move the car for the 9 to 11 AM sweeping for the side on which I had parked. Couldn't find another spot, waited nearby (probably standing double-parked on the other side, which is common practice there during sweeping). Sweeper went by, I and three or four others moved our cars back onto original side in its wake. Went upstairs to the apartment, came down five minutes later for an errand, found my car tagged for ASP violation and the other cars unmolested.

Sent the photo in with the appeal and got nowhere. Primarily they were taking a "letter of the law" view - the sign meant No Parking during that time frame at all, even though it was labeled for street cleaning and the sweeper had already gone through. Believe me, in all my life near or in NYC I never heard of them doing any other work following behind street sweepers.

In my experience, out-of-towners take NYC laws/signs/markings at least as seriously as do the locals, since they're not as familiar with local patterns and what you can get away with.

The more likely reason to target out-of-towners with tickets is they're less likely to appeal. I think you can go to in-person appeal after mail level on certain citations, but really - who can afford to blow up so much time and more money than the citation is worth to come back to NYC at some inconvenient date to contest it?

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>60% of cars I see pulled over have out-of-state plates.

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Why can't people understand bikes cannot be the only way to travel for most people. Because not everyone can afford to live in the city. Because of bad weather. Because you have to transport children/ items. Because some people are older/ and or have injuries/health issues. Ubers are causing alot of traffic too. People need to be able to find affordable parking in this city.

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Strawman argument - we know that not everyone can bike. The fact is, most people can and most people can take transit and the more people DO bike AND take transit, the more space there is on the roadways for that SMALL percentage that cannot.

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Bad weather - check
Kids being picked up and dropped off - check
commuting from outside the city - check
Transporting items - check

Of course, the real problem with your argument isn't your lack of ingenuity and sloth - it is that few of these require that you ride alone in a car all the time and that you aren't taking any responsibility for your impacts.

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I applaud your dedication to biking in all manner of conditions, but I have zero intention of doing so in any one of those scenarios you listed, and I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say that that goes for 99.9% of the population....it's called reality. I certainly don't want my city planners basing their decision on some fantasyland where everyone bikes in the middle of winter while towing 2 kids and a bag of groceries.

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Why can't people understand cars cannot be the only way to travel for most people. Because not everyone can afford (or wants) to buy, maintain, and park a car. Because a car costs thousands of dollars per year. Because a car requires parking at home and near every destination, which would be impossible without tearing down hundreds of buildings in Boston. Because some people have health issues that don't allow them to operate a car. Ubers are causing alot of traffic too. People need to be able to find affordable and convenient ways to get around in this city.

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Congratulations Mayor Walsh and his entire team on launching a series of steps intended at speeding bus service in Boston and such a good initiative to making smooth transportation service in the town. This full security and high technology used new bus lane will sure reduce street blocking as well as pay for other work.

Lauren,
CV Folks

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