Vent Time

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

So, yesterday was the 1st wednesday of the month and I get a ticket for streetsweeping. Fine, I haven't gotten any in a while, no big deal. So, I come back from work and park on the other side. As I was leaving this morning, my roommate tells me "They're ticketing you" and I'm like, what the hell now, so I go down, and I realize today is the 2nd thursday of the month. So, I'm out $100 in the space of two days. I like having clean streets as much as the next guy, but if arranging them on back to back days isn't exploitative, I don't know what is. I'm calling my ward alderman.

Comments

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

The back-to-back days thing happens whenever the month begins on your 2nd/4th sweeping day. It's a pain in the neck, but it only happens once or twice a year in most neighborhoods.

What do you want them to do instead? If the second day's street sweeping is cancelled, one side of the street goes unswept for a whole month. Is there another alternative that's simple enough to explain on a parking sign? I've occasionally given this some thought while running outside to move my car, and I can't think of anything that really works.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

but if arranging them on back to back days isn't exploitative, I don't know what is.

Then I guess you don't know what is.

The signs are there for you to read them.

I made you an icon

[two-stabs.livejournal.com]

In honor of this comment:

"The signs are there for you to read them."

(http://photobucket.com)

[nowalmart.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that a side of the street you just got a ticket for street-sweeting would actually seem to be the BEST place to park to avoid another one, at least for another couple of weeks...

[frederic.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately this back to back month happens once or twice every year due to when the 1st of the month lands.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

The nerve of them, scheduling the second Thursday of the month for the day after the first Wednesday of the month! Sneaky bastards.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Snarky.

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

You think you're so smart just because you're a human Dalek...

[aroraborealis.livejournal.com]

I don't see how this is exploitative, since it's all clearly labeled.

Boston Streetsweeper (http://bostonsweeper.boston.com/) is a useful reminder for those of us who can't be bothered to keep track on our own.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Exploitative is when they declare a snow emergency at a time that doesn't allow people to go home and move their cars because they're all at work, and then ticketing them for failure to remove them.

[wildflowersoul.livejournal.com]

Personal responsibility much? Get a calendar. Write "even" or "odd" on the days on which there is street cleaning. For extra reminder action, sign up for the reminder emails. This "to the internet!" overreaction to personal problems is getting way out of control.

[two-stabs.livejournal.com]

Wait, people use calendars still?

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

I WAS VENTING!

[turil.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad I don't own a car. Life is so much better without one! :-)

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Agreed! As much of a headache the T can be, I'd still rather deal with that than with this whole parking nightmare!

(Plus gas, tires, oil changes, insurance, bad drivers, snow...)

[komos.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you never pass up an opportunity for an "I told you so" response to any post involving cars. It fills me with mirth and glee! :-)

[prog.livejournal.com]

Allow me to sigh some sympathy in your direction as a balm against the previous commenters, though I agree with them in principle. Believe me, I felt the same way when it happened to me for the first time.

But, they chose to tie their street cleaning schedule to the calendar quite literally, which makes sense from an organizational point of view... and if it happens to trip up more folks into leaving their cars on the wrong side, resulting in a nice little cash infusion for the city, well, that kind of makes its own sense too.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I did clearly warn that it was a vent.

[thebostonreader.livejournal.com]

So does this mean there won't be any street sweeping at all next week?

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Yep. And then the week after we get two in a row.

To the OC--I agree that it sucks, and maybe you can try to appeal it, but at the end of the day it's just one more thing you have to manage. We all do.

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

It's times like these that signing up for the email street sweeping reminders are really helpful. I highly recommend them.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Thanks! This is a very useful suggestion and could reduce my rage levels. I looked on the website but all I could find was the signup for snow emergencies. Do you know where on the site to sign up for the street sweeping ones?

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, blame the city for the vagaries of the calendar. The dates simply fall that way a few times a year.

Annoying yes, but hardly exploitative.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. (And I presume you were joking about calling your alderperson.) I HATE it when I forget about street sweeping.

It's a lot easier since I got my neighbor's permission to use his driveway on street sweeping days. But still.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Amen!

[teko.livejournal.com]

The streetsweeping thing must be so lucrative for the city -- they just loooove it when this kind of thing comes up and stock up on orange envelopes :)

As bad as Somerville can be, Cambridge is worse, which I discovered when I parked farther down the street than usual recently, not realizing I was on the "Cambridge end". They ticketed me, then immediately towed me at 7am. If paying $100 for two days of sweeping's bad, then paying $75 for towing, a $30 ticket, and a chunk more for car repair afterwards is just sucky.

Not so lucrative

[hillville.livejournal.com]

I heard Mayor Joe say that, for the tickets where they've raised the fines (snow and sweeping), the total revenue has gone down. Apparently, the higher cost makes people take the rules more seriously and there are a lot fewer violations.

And Somerville hardly ever tows for street sweeping, while Cambridge does it all the time. (Personal experience, dammit.)

I wonder which strategy yields more revenue and which one is a more effective deterrent?

At least Somerville does a better job keeping the roads clear in winter.

[lena-a-mermaid.livejournal.com]

Damn you Aloysius Lilius and you too Pope Gregory!

[ron_newman]

One answer to this: sweep each side of the street only once a month (instead of twice), and sweep each side on the same day of the week.

also burned; totally agree

[boggrt.livejournal.com]

i moved my car for wed. but completely forgot about thu and was ticketed.

i moved from cambridge (less street cleaning) to somerville (more cleaning) over a year ago. i really don't understand the need to sweep each side of the street (residential areas) 2 x/month; i do see the need for commercial areas like davis sq.

however, cambridge parking monitors are really tough; they ticketed my bf for placing the visitor pass in upside-down under the windshield.

ticket venting (ME TOO!)

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

ok - so complaining on the internet is pathetic... but at least the internet listens... ;-)

Went out to my car this morning, on the street where I have lived for 10 years, to the place where I (and others) have parked frequently, so see the familiar day-glo orange windshield wiper ornament.

== $30. for parking less than 20 feet from an intersection. Screw that - people have been parking there for years. This is a one-way street and I was well clear of the crosswalk and the handicap curb cut. Took a photo - definitely appealing this one - total selective enforcement: I see loads of cars parking in the same/similar spots all around town.

To cap it, I parked at a meter right after to run into the bank... and came out to find a ticket @ meter unpaid. Hell - I live here... heh.

Ok - that's lame but the 20 feet thing is absurd. If they plan to enfore that I want little day-glo stakes driven into the ground at each intersection indicating the 20 foot mark.

There, I feel better. Thanks for listening to me, internet. How was your day?

Re: ticket venting (ME TOO!)

[ratatosk.livejournal.com]

If they plan to enforce that I want little day-glo stakes driven into the ground at each intersection indicating the 20 foot mark.

This is actually a very good point. The goal of these ordinances should be public safety, or clean streets, or whatever -- not to raise revenue. Assuming that is actually the goal, it's clear that these are not easy for people to comply with. It's almost never the case that someone parked somewhere illegally, knowing it was illegal, and then got a ticket and complained. People complain when it is too easy to screw up and not comply with the law even when they want to.

The orange stake solution is an example of real-world engineering being more effective than social engineering. It would probably work and make it genuinely easier for people to know if they were parked legally. When the only way to be sure you are parked legally involves a tape measure because average people can neither estimate 20 feet or tell exactly where to start measuring from, then enforcing that becomes exploitative. The solution is not for people to be scared and always park way further from the intersection than 20 feet -- the goal should be to make it clear exactly what you are trying to get people to do so that they can do that and everybody can get on with their business.

In my ideal world there would be some way for traffic officers to immediately contact the owner of the car and tell them to move it ASAP. If that sounds ridiculous, then maybe the goal isn't actually to make the car not be there after all.