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What is it with hydrants on Rutland Street that make them invisible to BMW drivers?
By adamg on Thu, 11/27/2014 - 6:58pm
Barely two weeks after a photo of a BMW at a hydrant on Rutland Street during a fire went national, Tim W. finds a BMW parked in front of a hydrant on Rutland Street. At least it's a different hydrant this time.
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Comments
Red hydrants
The hydrants should all be painted red and have reflective strips on them to maximize visibility and help prevent this (if this was also an honest mistake like the last time). Painting them black is so stupid. I know that historical commissions will throw a fit, but this is a public safety matter.
Right from the Massachusetts RMV website:
Color vision standard:
Applicant or licensee must be able to distinguish the colors red, green and amber.
If the applicant or licensee cannot distinguish the colors red, green, and amber, a license is not possible.
http://www.massrmv.com/rmv/medical/policies/vision.htm#colorvision
It's really not that hard to see a black hydrant with a bright yellow top mounted in/on a red brick sidewalk. This isn't a case of a person who can't see color. It's a case in which a selfish person just doesn't care.
I've owned several BMWs and they're my favorite car. However other BMW drivers are not.
Tag & tow.
Tag & tow.
+1
.
Fire Hydrant Color
Painting all fire hydrants Red would be a good idea, except that the color indicates their water flow rate. By checking the colors of the hydrants, Fire Fighters are able to quickly assess which hydrants with be most helpful in fighting a blaze.
Interesting. Thanks for the
Interesting. Thanks for the info.
Not historical.
Yellow is visible in snow and stuff.
or..... People could just pay
or..... People could just pay attention. Find it very hard to believe that the driver didn't see the hydrant.
Simple question?
When they made the curb bump out behind the BMW, why didn't they just extend it so that it would not be possible to park a vehicle in front of the hydrant?
Yes, Swirly
The entire S. End has hydrants that are 5-10' away from the corners, effectively wasting a parking spot.
In some places it's a curb bump. In other places, it's the handicapped ramp and/or crosswalk, meaning again 2 spots are 'wasted' instead of co-locating both 'obstacles' abutting one-another.
I assume it would be very expensive to move the hydrants. Extending the curb bump would make sense. No idea why they didn't do that. In general, it seems to me that each item was built (or funded, or designed) individually, with nobody ever having incentive (or budget) to consider the entire picture.
It actually..
Gives you more parking spaces, since you are not supposed to park within 10 feet of a hydrant and 20 feet of a crosswalk. Putting the hydrant right near a crosswalk let's them "double dip" and you in theory can have more parking spots.
Yes, but
@Robm; I agree, we should 'double-dip' at the corners. Unfortunately, the hydrants/ramps/crosswalks are often 10 or more feet from one another, so they effectively take up 2 spaces, instead of just one.
My assumptions are that the hydrants and pipe lines were in place long before curb bumps or ramps, and each item was probably funded separately over history. So there was just nobody that ever had the funding or incentive to clean the whole thing up.
Before , the curb bumps in
Before , the curb bumps in the South End were trash piles.............
Something you seem to be forgetting
The purpose of fire hydrants is not to mess with drivers, but to deliver water to put out fires. Thus, I would expect the first, last, and only consideration on their placement would be how best to do that. Maybe it's proximity to buildings or maybe it's location relative to water mains, I don't know -- but "in the least inconvenient spot for people who want to park" doesn't make the list.
Brilliant, swirley
What a brilliant idea. Let's do it everywhere.
Why not extend the hydrants?
Something like this might help the situation:
Tall">https://flic.kr/p/631w7y][img]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3530/330451... Fire Hydrant by https://www.flickr.com/people/12622904@N03/" title="https://www.flickr.com/people/12622904@N03/">Lino M, on Flickr
Um...
...looks a little tough to open.
I was thinking about that too.
I'm not so sure it will be all that hard to open. The caps on the sides might actually be easier to open if you have enough weight, and a decent lever arm. Getting the valve open (which I'm totally assuming is done by turning the top) might not be an issue either. The valve can be repositioned at a lower part below where an upper hose can attach.
Of course I'm only a fireman in the bedroom so what do I know?
Or maybe just not block the
Or maybe just not block the fucking hydrant.
YES!!!!!
YES! After living in the SE and seeing MANY of these type spots, I've always wondered this myself. Or why they aren't put on corners so they don't waste a space. There has to be a reason why this hasn't been done. (outside of $ issues)
Perhaps because, if they're
Perhaps because, if they're put on corners, the hoses can reach fewer buildings. And, you know...put out fires.
BMW drivers feel that they
BMW drivers feel that they are beyond superior when it comes down to parking in Boston, first of all these bmw owners are paying $499 a month for these money pit cars, they feel special when driving down Comm ave or Newbury street, they want people that are walking on the sidewalks of the back bay to turn their heads towards them and their $499 a month leased Bmw money pit !
Something of the sort
I once had two different BMW drivers start to move into my lane without looking, within the space of a mile. I don't know if either one signaled, because I was right next to them, and couldn't see their turn signal lights. This is not a common event, regardless of the brand of car, so it's hard not to draw some kind of correlation from these instances. Oh, and if it matters, my car was a fairly bright red.
Wow!
I once had a fairly bright red car smash into my car when they ran a red light....but there are lots of other fairly bright red cars out there who haven't smashed into my car, so I'm not sure if you can draw any correlation whatsoever.
How many red fire hydrants
have smashed into your car?
Yea , Perruptor
Yea , Perruptor
I get that alot too, especially driving through storrow drive , at the section where the traffic light is near the entrance of 93 south tunnel, I cut in front of a Bmw driver in this area once, he gave me a look , like he was saying -how dare you cut in front of me, My brakes are worth more than your car, and I pay way more taxes than you!
BMW Brain malfunction
Schmuck. I'll make sure the BPD knows about this.
My pleasure.
How perfect!
The wisdom of Internet advertising! BMW ad showing up at the bottom of my screen! :-)
Entitlement
Who says BMW driving Yuppies are self centered, entitled little brats?
On another note, this is exactly why the City should restrict development that has no parking and should require more parking spaces throughout the City.
Or require less cars throughout the City.
What do you think of that?
Cars aren't required now.
Cars aren't required now. Having a car is a choice, not a requirement.
Here's an idea....
Cars parked in front of a hydrant are towed and crushed.
Biff only parked
in front of he hydrant because there was no handicapped ramp to block.
I agree with bumping out the
I agree with bumping out the sidewalk and curb in front of the hydrants on street corners. However, not all hydrants are on corners. I've suggested to the city they paint a box on the pavement in red or yellow or whatever color to designate no parking. Something like the blue boxes used for handicap parking. If money were no object, have the hydrant access in the middle of the street. I think it's done in some foreign cities. Makes for easy access even in the winter when the streets get plowed.
Nah
Why paint a box? It's much better to make people guess at 10'.
Also, I certainly don't know much about hydrants, but I'm curious about the design. It looks like a larger diameter connection facing the street. Smaller diameter lines parallel to the sidewalk.
Does anyone know why another, larger diameter line can't also face another direction, to allow access if the hydrant were to be blocked? Or do FD's not have the smaller diameter hoses that they could use?
I'm sure the larger diameter hoses are required, or just better in some situations, but I'm curious to learn more about the options and reasons there aren't more larger diameter connections, if anyone here knows.
http://cbsboston.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/hydrant-fire.jpg?w=620&h=34...
The easiest thing to do would
The easiest thing to do would be to simply outlaw fires on Rutland street. That would eliminate the need for hydrants and I could, I mean people could park wherever they like. Emergencies are becoming increasingly inconvenient.
9 out of 10 BMW
drivers are a-holes.
Because they're assholes...
But Audi drivers take first prize in that category.
30 years ago at least
Audi drivers in the USA drove much more conservatively than BMW drivers. I wonder why this changed....
Aaron Hernandez
drove his Audi during his mini OJ spree last year.