The Herald reports the city has suspended six workers and is looking at six more in a scheme in which they allegedly wrote bogus tickets to make it seem they were working their shifts when they weren't.
BTD
Boston city councilors say they support expanding the current free-fare pilot on the 28 bus to the 23 and 29 routes next year but say they also want to know who pays for continuing or even expanding the service once a planned $8-million, two-year pilot runs out. Read more.
WCVB reports a BTD worker who had pulled up to Charles Street South and Stuart Street to write some parking tickets early this morning was injured when somebody jumped into the car and drove off - with the worker's hand initially still in the door. Police caught up with the car, and the Brighton woman who allegedly stole it, on Southampton Street.
A concerned citizen notes the impending centralization of Uber/Lyft pickups and drop offs at Logan Airport and poses a question via 311 to BTD: Read more.
Boston transportation officials tomorrow will show off their formal plans for curbing vehicular mayhem along Centre Street, spurred on by a pedestrian's death at Centre and Hastings in February. Read more.
Just yesterday, the Boston Transportation Department put in one of those traffic-counting cable things on Conway Street in response to neighborhood concerns about unsafe drivers. Tim West reports that less than 10 hours later, a public-works street sweeper tore it up.
Mike Cauley shows us the $25 ticket he got at 9:33 a.m. today for parking on Comm. Ave. in Allston despite having used the city parking app to pay for parking between 8 a.m. and 10:02 a.m.
15/16 cars had tickets. No checking of payment via the app. Technology should add convenience not be troublesome
The Dig reports that until recently license-plate data going back to 2012 was available on a publicly accessible server on the Web, because somebody at either the Boston Transportation Department at the private companies that run the system was unable to figure out the basics of data security.
Left unanswered is the question of why garbage trucks are roaming the city with license-plate scanners, although the Dig also notes that Boston Police - which said it stopped its own license scooping in 2013 - was getting daily reports from the database.
A concerned citizen reports on an incident Friday evening on Washington Street in the South End:
Unprofessional conduct by BTD employee: at 7:45pm, female BTD exited BTD van ticketed car on Washington St whose meter just expired (15 min prior to end of enforcement) then did a ridiculous happy dance before getting back into van. As van drove by crowed outdoor restaurant (Toro) she hung out the window and yelled, "Everyone else is free tonight!" Was this some kind of competition? Either way, this behavior should be reprimanded.
Interesting photo that shows what happens when a vengeful neighbor slashes your tires for daring to park in "their" space and then the local meter maid decides to issue you a steady stream of tickets. Brought to you by the neighborhood of East Boston.
An irate citizen complains about this BTD vehicle on Beacon Street in the Back Bay:
A concerned citizen spotted tree choking on Burbank Street in the Fenway:
An aghast citizen snaps a photo of a BTD van making an illegal right turn on red at Stuart and Dartmouth:
The light was red and there is a clear no right on red sign and a walk sign. There were pedestrians in the crosswalk.
We live on one of those out-of-the-way Roslindale streets that almost nobody drives on unless they either live here or on one of the even smaller side streets off of it. And since it's all single and two-family homes with driveways, there aren't any parking problems. The only problem we do have is the road is two way, but isn't really wide enough for that, so people who do park in the street sometimes pull up on the sidewalk to keep their side mirrors from getting clipped (me, I'm grateful I now have a car with a side mirror you can fold flat; the old car had the mirror ripped off three or four times).
Kevin Lee took this photo (click on it for a larger version) by the State House today.
Fort Point Blog reports BTD is working to increase the number of resident-only parking spaces in the neighborhood, but has rejected local requests to start issuing Fort Point resident stickers, rather than continuing to give residents South Boston stickers:
Their position is that South Boston is one neighborhood and will not be separated.