Parking and Other Intensely Personal Matters

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

This is a tricky message to write because, while it references a couple of other threads, it is primarily a personal message.

First, I want to note once that, once again without help from "official sources," the DS community has done an outstanding job of covering the public policy issues around street sweeping procedures and ticketing. The only additional elements I would add are that:

* The $50 ticket does seem to acting as a deterrent. (I'll try to get the actual numbers, but the city wrote more tickets back when it was $25. Apparently, some folks saw the lower fine as bearable, but bestirred themselves to comply when the fine went up.)
* If we wanted to "maximize revenue," the city would set a lower penalty so that we would get to write more tickets. The goal here really is to improve compliance.
* The reason that the sweeping schedule varies from neighborhood to neighborhood (second and fourth Mondays in mine, first and third Tuesdays in yours), is that we don't have enough equipment or personnel to do the all the even- (or odd-) numbered streets citywide on the same day.

I could go on but, as already noted, other posters covered almost everything in this debate -- including the fact that it's always infuriating to get a ticket, even when it's your fault and even when there are good reasons for the policy. I appreciate the fact that so many members of this community essentially said "Yeah, it stinks, but it is what it is." You have to be careful or you'll get a reputation for being grown-ups -- and who wants that?

Second, I want to apologize for not being more in evidence in recent weeks. I participated in a family vacation trip to London from March 19th to the 26th (a word of appreciation goes out here to Somerville Critter Care for minding the cats and the house) and returned to find that my 85-year-old father has gone into the hospital with some serious problems. I've been spending a lot of time there and am going to have to continue to do so.

Therefore, and third, I will be not be making an appearance at the Burren, for which I offer apologies in advance.

Sorry to be such a Capt.Bringdown.>:(



I'll try to make a future meet-up.

Comments

[narya.livejournal.com]

So sorry to hear that your father's not doing well. I will be thinking of your family.

[metagnat.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. I will keep you and your father in my thoughts.

-E

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info, and I hope you enjoyed your vacation!! And I know I speak for other communities when I say I am sorry to hear about your father. Best to you and your family.

[ron_newman]

I'm sorry to hear about your father. I hope he recovers soon.

(But while I've got you on the line here -- what do you think of the idea of starting street cleaning at 9 or 10 instead of 8 am?)

[ruxxell.livejournal.com]

its interesting that you should say that there were a lot of people willing to just shell out the 25 bucks to not move their cars, as it reminds me of Freakonomics and the part where the school was charging parents some measly amount if they failed to pick up their kids, and noticed that when the fine was too low, it INCREASED the number of parents who didnt pick their kids up on time
because you can replace guilt with money.

so, smart move with the 50 bucks. as a carless guy, it doesn't impact me anyways :D

[androidqueen.livejournal.com]

I find myself thinking of this story all the time these days. It was in Freakonomics? For some reason I thought it was in Hidden Order. Oops, I've been telling everyone wrong, I guess. :)

[pants-of-doom.livejournal.com]

Is that Captain Britain?

[spot.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is...

[myselftheliar.livejournal.com]

I hope everything works out well for you sir.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

As the OP on the parking post, I agree with much of what you've written here though I did want to ask you something about this:

* If we wanted to "maximize revenue," the city would set a lower penalty so that we would get to write more tickets. The goal here really is to improve compliance.

How does having a lower penalty allow the city to write more tickets? Is it that a lower penalty ensures more non-compliance and hence more tickets? I would think that the city can write as many tickets as there are non-compliant cars.

[narya.livejournal.com]

Like Tom noted in his post, at $25 some people probably thought it was less trouble to pay the ticket than to move their cars. That seems consistent with the way one would expect supply and demand to work.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Hope things go as well as possible for you and your family.

[anomie666.livejournal.com]

I'm very sorry to hear about your father.

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

1. It IS Captain Britain, subbing in for Capt. Bringdown and doing a darn good job of killing the buzz with his steely glare of disapproval.
2. If we started street sweeping later, we'd finish later and the job would overlap the 4 p.m. shift change. that, in turn, would raise issues of overtime, shift size, and switching over equipment and drivers from one shift to another.
3. There's a price-point at which many more vehicle owners would just as soon pay as comply. If you find it, you maximize revenue. It may actually be less than $50, but it's more than $25. The fines are set by ordinance, however, so we have a very limited ability to experiment with incremental adjustments. As the aldermen will tell you, the $50 level was set to deter, not raise added revenue.

[ron_newman]

But isn't street sweeping done from 8 am to noon everywhere? If it was instead 9 am to 1 pm, or 10 am to 2 pm, that wouldn't go past 4 pm.

[bryant]

Sorry to hear about your father. :( Best wishes for his recovery.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about your father, and thanks so much for posting here about all this. Best of luck.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

Best wishes for your Dad. It's a really tough thing when Dad is not doing well, and I'm sorry you have to go through it. Thanks for being here for us despite that.

[shu-al.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about your father, it's not easy when a family member/loved one takes ill. Hang in there.

[obie119.livejournal.com]

Best wishes to you and your family, and for the health of your father.

[veek.livejournal.com]

I am sorry to hear about your father, Tom. My best wishes for his recovery.

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear about your father. I hope things improve!

[winterhill.livejournal.com]

Of course I chime in with good thoughts for your family ... and also a big huge Tom Champion fan-club THANKS for posting here and getting into the fray. You'll see the conversation goes on and on but yeah ... some of us really are adults over here. It's just plain weird.

[lissie930.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about your dad, I'll be thinking about you all.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Best wishes and good thoughts for your father.

[elements.livejournal.com]

I'll add my well-wishes for your dad. And don't worry about not being around as much - we understand that you do have a life outside of Livejournal :).

how about delaying in school areas?

[kalimba21.livejournal.com]

Hi Tom -

Sorry to hear about your father.

I had heard that some progress had been made to delay street cleaning tickets in school drop off areas until 9am.
With a strict 8:21 start time, it is ugly and brutal around the Healey School on these 4 days / month. It really seems like cruel and unusual punishment. Many of us walk our young children into the building, so we're out by 8:40.

Thanks for any insight into this issue.

Lexington Ave

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

While we're on the subject of parking.......
I have a question about Lexington Ave. Friday sawhorses appeared, placed on both sides of the street, for about 1/3 the length of the street. There are no dates, just the standard "work area, no parking 7:00-4:00". The neighbors are concerned about what type of work is going to be done, and how long it will last. Also, after getting those "there's a snowstorm coming in case you didn't already know" robo-calls all winter, why don't we get a call when something like this is taking place? If it's just for one day it's not too bad, but there's no indication of dates which makes me wonder if it will be long-term. If so, it could create real parking problems on the street! Thanks for any info you can provide.