MBTA Winter 2015: Failure and Recovery

Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Why is it permissible to park blocking a travel lane (be it bike or car)? How does snow magically make it okay to park 5' away from the curb? Why is every single car blocking lanes and narrowing streets, making commutes hell and emergency services job a million times harder, not ticketed and towed?

The issue isn't that they lifted the parking ban, the issue is people are parking where there are not places to park.

Proposal: tow every single car more than a foot into a travel lane. Use the revenue to buy snow melters and more plows. It might also force people/businesses to shovel out parking spaces.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

^ good question, but there are times when the people effectively make their own laws, and the current parking situation is one of them.

In Evanston IL, (after something like 30" of snow from several storms) the solution was quite amazing. It took a dozen tow trucks per block (or one for each car). They would tow all the cars, in sequence, have a slow parade with them around the neighborhood, and while gone they would earth-move and truck the snow away, clean back to the curb--and then put the cars back curbside in the order they found them. (No ticketing). Then move on to the next block. Midwest Nice.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Arlington said:
^ good question, but there are times when the people effectively make their own laws, and the current parking situation is one of them.

In Evanston IL, (after something like 30" of snow from several storms) the solution was quite amazing. It took a dozen tow trucks per block (or one for each car). They would tow all the cars, in sequence, have a slow parades with them around the neighborhood, and while gone they would earth-move and truck the snow away---and then put the cars back in the order they found them. (No ticketing). Then move on to the next block. Midwest Nice.
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They do that in Montreal too.

Somerville has a problem where, parking is banned on (usually) the even side of the street during snow emergencies, but the city only has the resources to clear out the snowbanks to the curb on main streets. So the side streets lose at least half their parking spaces after a storm. I shoveled out two even-side spaces in front of my building, but hardly anyone else bothers to do so. There's a real lack of community responsibility to help out neighbors. The old townies definitely have a point about that.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

The way that some people park & drive in East Boston is a hellacious nightmare in & of itself!!

Even when there IS NO snow!! They just park right in crosswalks, double park, blow right through stop signs & red lights, playing obnoxiously loud music. They just have no respect for the law!! :eek:

Meridian Street is only a 2-lane street, yet there are morons all along the street double parking!! :eek:
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Another snowstorm is presently upon us.

Word is out that yet another one is coming on Friday, then the temps will yet again, plunge back into the single digits!!

This is nuts!! :eek:
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Jahvon09 said:
Another snowstorm is presently upon us.

Word is out that yet another one is coming on Friday, then the temps will yet again, plunge back into the single digits!!

This is nuts!! :eek:
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No it's not nuts. It's winter in New England.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

MBTAddict said:
No it's not nuts. It's winter in New England.
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Yeah. And we got spoiled by last winter. I think of NE winters as a 1-in-3 choice: Easy, Normal, Hard. '13-'14 was easy, and while this one ain't easy, we don't yet know if it will rate normal or hard.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Yeah, and the old saying is that if one does not like it, then wait 5 minutes, it'll change.

Seems to only change from better to worst! Note how every time the sun comes out, it's only for one to 2 days or a half a day.

And BTW, we WEREN'T spoiled last winter. Not that much. We still had snow, but probably not as bad as THIS winter has become. Three storms inside of 2 weeks with another one on the way by Friday! :eek:
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

The inconsistency of lanes right now is really making driving a bit of a nightmare. I wish the city would either plow a road all the way or plow it with 1 lane less than usual. It gets to be very confusing and dangerous where there is a lane that keeps starting and stopping because of the snow banks...
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Jahvon09 said:
Yeah, and the old saying is that if one does not like it, then wait 5 minutes, it'll change.

Seems to only change from better to worst! Note how every time the sun comes out, it's only for one to 2 days or a half a day.

And BTW, we WEREN'T spoiled last winter. Not that much. We still had snow, but probably not as bad as THIS winter has become. Three storms inside of 2 weeks with another one on the way by Friday! :eek:
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It's nuts!! :eek:
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Arlington said:
Yeah. And we got spoiled by last winter. I think of NE winters as a 1-in-3 choice: Easy, Normal, Hard. '13-'14 was easy, and while this one ain't easy, we don't yet know if it will rate normal or hard.
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Last winter is the worst I can I remember because it lasted for such a long time. As somebody with severe seasonal depression, I'd rather get slammed with a succession of big snowstorms like 2010-'11 and have it cut off mid-February than deal with 30 degree weather on March 30th. The two winters in between this one and that one could probably be classified as super ultra easy, especially '11-'12. '12-'13 did give us one big snowstorm.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Isnt there a law that you have to park within 6 inches of the curb?

Enforce it, tow the entitled brats blocking travel lanes
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

jass said:
Isnt there a law that you have to park within 6 inches of the curb?
Enforce it, tow the entitled brats blocking travel lanes
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Law requires cars be no more than 12 inches from the curb (that's a standard drivers license test matter).

I'm entirely opposed to treating car parking as a free entitlement, and in favor of re-allocating thr streets in favor of walk, bike, and bus, but I find it impractical to pick this fight in the snow, if only because we lack the impound lot capacity (probably reduced by snow and filled with plenty of more egregious safety violators)
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

davem said:
The issue isn't that they lifted the parking ban, the issue is people are parking where there are not places to park.

Proposal: tow every single car more than a foot into a travel lane. Use the revenue to buy snow melters and more plows. It might also force people/businesses to shovel out parking spaces.
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Dump all the snow in the Boston Harbor instead of just pushing it all around.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Digital_Islandboy said:
Dump all the snow in the Boston Harbor instead of just pushing it all around.
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I think they do. It just takes a long time to move so many tons of snow.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Dumping snow in the harbor has been illegal since 1997 because road-side snow is believed to contain too many toxic chemicals that seep out of motor vehicles (... yet nobody seems to mind that these chemicals are allowed to be spread in our neighborhood streets).
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Matthew said:
Dumping snow in the harbor has been illegal since 1997 because road-side snow is believed to contain too many toxic chemicals that seep out of motor vehicles (... yet nobody seems to mind that these chemicals are allowed to be spread in our neighborhood streets).
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Time to revise that policy. Partly, because it was dumb to being with...as you note chemicals from cars are entering our water or percolating into the ground when the snow thaws. And Partly, I'd guess our cars are cleaner 17 years on--there's been a huge turnover in the technologies in our cars in that time.
 
Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

They DO have snow melters that they can use.

One of my nieces posted a pic on Facebook of one being used in her neighborhood in Dorchester. Just like at Logan Airport!!
 
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Re: MBTA & Regualr Driving may be Shut Down During Coming Snowstorm!

Jahvon09 said:
They DO have snow melters that they can use.
One of my nieces posted a pic of one being used in her neighborhood in Dorchester. Just like at Logan Airport!!
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Those are amazing things but use soooo much fossil energy, whereas the harbor operates on clean solar.
 
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