“You can’t park illegally. I mean, you get a ticket, there’s something wrong there, and I’m asking people to just, y’know, respect the rules of the road,” Walsh told the Herald. “No parking in front of fire hydrants, no parking in front of handicap ramps — those are the main tickets we give. There are some expired meters as well. A ticket is not something we give out just randomly across the city of Boston — you only get a ticket if there’s an infraction there. And we’re also looking at how do we cut down on traffic and congestion. Y’know, all of that — those issues.
That quote pretty much sums up the attitude of the city of Boston, and perhaps many cities across the fruited plain. We are not here to provide convenient parking and good service, we are here to enforce rules. And by golly, we are going to do that.
Boston writes 1.3 million citations a year and collects upwards of $65 million in fines, and according to the article quoted in parknews.biz, the number of citations written is going down slightly, but the revenue is going up – yep, they are raising fees. And we all know where those fees are going. Right smack dab into the general fund.
The article quotes a number of people who receive citation after citation and pay hundreds a year in fines. They seem like regular people, why are they getting so many tickets. Why has the city of Boston been unable to change their behavior?
Could it have something to do with the mayor’s attitude. Have they discussed the reasons they have rules about parking and what those rules mean not only to the city but also to the parkers. What kind of PR program do they have to promote parking in the city? Do they explain the need for the rules and what they men to the preservation of this most critical municipal asset?
I think we all know the answer to that.
JVH
