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A T ticket
By adamg on Sun, 04/03/2022 - 9:56pm
Tom the roving UHub photographer spotted this official looking MBTA vehicle with a Boston parking ticket last night on High Street downtown. The T's operation center is right there, but it's on the other side of the street, so maybe that offended a ticket giver - or maybe the driver got the ticket somewhere else and left it in place as a badge of honor or an attempt to fend off further tickets (anybody know if that actually works?).
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Comments
either way
no ones paying for that ticket
FWIW
I'd much rather the guy get chewed out for doing whatever caused the ticket vs the T writing the city a check.
Doesn’t matter. Tickets on
Doesn’t matter. Tickets on government vehicles get thrown out.
It didn't work for my ticket thief
I once had a ticket on my car that I saw when I went to grab something from it so left it there rather than putting more on the meter, but a little while later when I went to leave it was gone. I went down the block checking other cars and sure enough about four cars behind me was the ticket someone had snatched from my windshield and put on theirs in an attempt to avoid a fine.
I was parked on the corner and saw two BTD ticket writers in a coffee shop finishing up a break. I went in and explained the situation asking if they'd be so kind as to give that car its own ticket. They laughed and accused me of not having any Christmas spirit (it was a few days before the holiday).
I left a note under the wiper next to their ticket that told them that if they really wanted a parking ticket they should just wait to get one of their very own with a promise to them that it wouldn't take long. In hindsight I probably should have skipped that as they probably would have just tossed their ticket without looking at it and only learned of my correction of the situation when they got notice that it doubled for non-payment.
Kids?
Could it have been kids fooling around?
Kids on dirt bikes.
Who don’t pick up after their dogs?
Guess you never heard the
Guess you never heard the creed "Don't knock the hustle" or "Don't hate the player, hate the game" growing up. That employee definitely told stories of your audacity during that holiday break.
i think they mark the tires with blue chaulk
then come back 2 hours later to know if the same vehicle has expired its time.
I've Been Working Downtown Since....
well, let's just say Dukakis was governor.
The only place I have seen chalk marks on tires from a parking enforcement person was in Carmel CA.
You are a veritable fountain
You are a veritable fountain of dubious anecdotes
Yeah man, Carmel's a bitch.
Yeah man, Carmel's a bitch.
Chalk is dead
As of 2015, meter readers haven’t used chalk “in years.” Easier to punch into the device your plate number as a starting time:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/10/02/six-things-you-may-not-know...
Chalk marks are no longer allowed
Chalk marks on tires are no longer allowed as they constitute an illegal search. (Although I found conflicting information when I tried to verify that.) It's easier and faster to scan the bar code on the vehicle's inspection sticker.
I think I read that somewhere
I think I read that somewhere as well.
Ridiculous, though. A simple, nondestructive, noninstrusive, time-marking convention applied for the limited window of the parking and leaving no record if no violation is noted is "an illegal search", so now they go by with hand scanners and car-mounted scanners, taking inventory by license plate, with link to owner/registration information, building a database of demographic information that probably sits somewhere vulnerable, whether the person has committed a violation or not.
Here's an article about that
Here's an article about that court decision: https://www.npr.org/2019/04/23/716248823/court-says-using-chalk-on-tires...
And I totally agree that it's really stupid. Did the court have ANY idea that while claiming to protect people's rights, they're actually pushing parking officials to violate everyone's rights electronically?
Andover
Andover used to have a person in a golf cart roaming the municipal parking lots. Each hour was assigned a certain color of chalk.
They haven't used chalk in 20 years
The parking enforcement crew has hand-held devices in which they enter your license plate info. If you are parked on the same street when they return, you will get a ticket if you are over the time limit.
Fun fact: sometimes you can
Fun fact: sometimes you can move to another street or block and they'll still ticket you. They're supposed to take notice of the location but they either don't do that, or they disregard it.
FYI, if you move it get some distance
Not sure if this is still the case, but a friend moved the car up the block and across the street but still got a ticket for violating the time limit. They challenged it and learned that the system doesn't track that closely (i.e. to the specific space) and it would come up as a violation anywhere in that zone. So they were still on the hook for it.
But how is that legal?
But how is that legal?
Apparently the violation is not for a specific space
My understanding is that the time limit on parking applies to the zone/area. As I understand it if you're at a two hour meter and come out and add time for another couple of hours you could still get a ticket as you've gone beyond the allowable time even if the space is "paid for" by you. They generally don't bother with that, but where there aren't meters and they're tracking cars parked there you are more likely to be cited even if you move your car from that space to another nearby one.
Yea I think it’s in the BPD regulations
What people would do is park at a metered spot or two hour space, then just switch spaces with one of their coworkers across the street before the two hours is up. The purpose of meters and two hour limits in general is to have people come into busy areas, do their thing and then leave in a reasonable amount of time.
Who is T 5?
And why does he or she have a take home car that looks like it has emergency lights on the grill? How many of the payroll patriots that work at the MBTA have take home gas guzzling cars?
That tickets probably from March
of 2019.
I’ve seen them scan inspection stickers.
Which have bar codes which I assume bring up all your plate information. I believe that’s the modern day chalking the tires.
Ticketing on Sunday evening on High Street
It reassures me that the City is diligently enforcing the law, and ensuring public safety, rather than grabbing for cash to justify the bloated payroll.
Does anyone know…
… if Transit Police can ticket vehicles parked in bus lanes and bus stops?
I’ve never seen them do it.
Seems like a good idea to me.
It's a sign
That is a known signal to other drivers that the driver of the parked is cruising and looking to hook up. Wait until if they return which means they are into you.
Lots of drivers leave tickets on the windshields, those horn (in more than one way) 8astards (and 8itches) .
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