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AmnesiaInnocent t1_jddkr4y wrote

That seems like a win for residents, even with the increased towing fine. IIRC, previously you had to pay more than $50 to the towing company to get your car back, and they charged more each day. This is just one $50 ticket.

Are they still going to have the trucks going around warning people that they'll get "tagged and towed"?

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nattarbox t1_jddrmoo wrote

How will I know it’s spring if I’m not woken up by a truck megaphone

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AboyNamedBort t1_jdfuqq6 wrote

That shit is ridiculous. More crap non drivers have to deal with because of lazy, selfish drivers

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commentsOnPizza t1_jde5qyp wrote

So they're saying that a resident permit that doesn't have to worry about street cleaning is only $50/mo!

I think a huge number of people are just going to pay the ticket. There are certainly low-income people who live in Cambridge and people who live with a few roommates, but there's also a lot of people easily affording $3,000+ in rent. $50/mo to not have to deal with street cleaning will likely get a lot of people not moving their cars.

I think that's why the pilot will likely fail or at least need to be adjusted. If the ticket were $200, it would make a lot more people move their car. At $50, it's way cheaper than paying for off-street parking.

Maybe the alternative would be to do street cleaning twice a month like Somerville does. That way you'd get the places a car didn't move the first time on the second go-around. It would also mean $100/mo in fines instead of just $50.

At $50, it just seems like a lot of people would pay it and ignore it. I am glad that Cambridge is moving away from towing because that was always terrible. I just think that a $50 ticket is going to be meaningless to half of Cambridge. Median income in Cambridge is $113,000. Of the population that owns cars, the median income is going to be a lot higher. Towing was always way too harsh a solution to the problem, but $50 probably won't move the needle enough.

Thinking about it some more, maybe the solution is towing a car on the third ticket. We've ticketed your car twice for not moving for street cleaning and you don't care about the $50 so we're going to tow. I think that makes a lot of sense. Towing someone for a mistake is way too harsh. However, letting some rich person pay way less than off-street parking costs to ignore street cleaning seems too lenient and problematic for street cleaning. This way, the city just tickets for infractions that might be honest mistakes, but also deals with habitual violators to make sure that people understand this isn't a $50/mo way to buy yourself out of street cleaning.

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JB4-3 t1_jdf7ucv wrote

Thoughtful, and researched. Got my vote pizzaman

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some1saveusnow t1_jdggdeq wrote

You are 100% right. they won’t be able to street clean very effectively if it’s just going to be $50.

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AboyNamedBort t1_jdfv046 wrote

Towing someone for breaking the law isn’t harsh. Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time

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Hajile_S t1_jddy942 wrote

To say the least. $125 I believe for the tow? I’d rather pay all of that to Cambridge than to this parasitic towing practice. Let me be clear, that would be an absurd ticket, but at least it would add some value to society.

If those bizarre doomsday speakers stay silent, all the better.

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noob_tube03 t1_jddoyxw wrote

thats what I was wondering. If theyre not gonna warn anymore I worry about how much cleaning theyll be able to do!

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anabranched t1_jddrmjl wrote

There are plenty of people in this town who won't get out of bed for $50.

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kiwi-cucumber t1_jddr5fh wrote

This seems like a good thing - especially since every time I walk my dogs on a street cleaning day, I would often see them towing AWD cars not on a flatbed, which can damage the transmission. The punishment of getting your car damaged and dealing with the logistics of getting it back doesn’t fit the crime.

I hope they keep sending Paul Revere to warn us that the street cleaners are coming, because people will want to help do the right thing, but sometimes need a reminder.

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Humbert_Minileaous t1_jdfeyod wrote

it ain't Paul it's Lenny Silva retired DPW worker:

https://www.wbur.org/morningedition/2016/07/01/cambridge-street-cleaning-voice

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AboyNamedBort t1_jdfv9a1 wrote

That shit is obnoxious. Stop bothering non drivers.

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noob_tube03 t1_jdfwmln wrote

Get bent you live in a city. Do you complain about police sirens disturbing law abiding citizens too?

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ttech32 t1_jddptj8 wrote

So do they just sweep around the cars that weren't moved?

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Alan_Stanwyk t1_jdeji5x wrote

Correct

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AboyNamedBort t1_jdfv4so wrote

So the streets will be filthy because spoiled, lazy drivers can’t be inconvenienced. What a dumb idea.

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Alan_Stanwyk t1_jdh3jlb wrote

Agreed. Personally I don’t understand not towing these cars. City streets are fucking filthy and it’s annoying when people just leave their cars there.

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Fleur75 t1_jdexwey wrote

And pay for guys to come around and clean those spots by hand, if necessary, or if you live in the right place

−1

JB4-3 t1_jddtg6k wrote

Seems like it doesn’t accomplish the street cleaning goal. If we want clean streets we should enable the street sweepers, not weaken the program to make it cheaper

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thatguy10095 t1_jdduxhd wrote

That'd be why it's a 1 year pilot, to see how well people can adjust to the new policy.

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AmnesiaInnocent t1_jddxi26 wrote

It's not just cheaper for residents, I assume that it's cheaper for the city, too...

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mduchesn2004 t1_jde87cp wrote

I believe the DPW said it would cost $100k more for the program. They’re going to have a guy with a leaf blower walk the street and get trash and leaves out from parked cars.

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[deleted] t1_jdemt7s wrote

[deleted]

−3

mduchesn2004 t1_jdeoz4e wrote

I would assume the concern is that the garbage attracts rats and the leaves block storm drains and cause flooding. A few cars may be fine but if too many people leave their cars out, then it could cause larger issues.

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JB4-3 t1_jddzteo wrote

Not sure how you figure. Towing is free to the city and they can then clean where the car had been. It’s cheaper because it collects revenue switching to ticketing, but cannot clean where cars are parked

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AmnesiaInnocent t1_jde052s wrote

I thought that they used to have police accompany the tow trucks. Now they won't need to do that. Even if they have meterm... um... people issue the tickets, that's got to be less expensive than having cops do it...

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JB4-3 t1_jde0g1b wrote

Haven’t seen that, good point. I thought they just tip off the tow company who charges the driver $100-200 for the pleasure.

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Comfortable-Most808 t1_jde014v wrote

Curious if there is a program that sends out texts the day before street cleaning if you input the street you parked on. Sometimes the day changes based on holidays (one random holiday got my roommate towed) or even a notification if there is going to be construction on the street (I got towed because they put fliers up only 24 hours prior to construction). As a coder, seems like a pretty non trivial thing to implement if the city can update it

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zootgirl t1_jde0pg4 wrote

Somerville has this and it's SUPER helpful.

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jdb12 t1_jde522z wrote

Wait they do?? Where? I'm signed up for all the other ones but not this!

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zootgirl t1_jdefooy wrote

Oh, snap. Looks like they removed the text reminders. But, you can receive an email still or download a calendar. Too bad, the texts were super convenient.

ETA: It's weird, Cambridge and Somerville clearly use the same system and Cambridge has text reminders available. Maybe Somerville will turn text reminders back on when street sweeping starts up again?

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Humbert_Minileaous t1_jdfeilp wrote

street sweeping odd number side you will be tagged but not towed.

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SpyCats t1_jddysf4 wrote

Lots of dirty streets in the future.

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Hyperbowleeeeeeeeeee t1_jdemo65 wrote

I see the stupid street cleaning go by and the street looks the same before and after. A small streak is damp, and that's it.

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crispr-dev t1_jdg6s5p wrote

Anything is better than dealing with that scumbag tow company

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CriticalTransit t1_jdexi8u wrote

This is the dumbest idea I’ve heard in a while. “This program will only work of residents (do their part without any meaningful penalty for not doing it). Yeah that’s not how humans operate.

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AboyNamedBort t1_jdfvj0o wrote

American drivers are famously lazy and shitty at following laws. Only a complete moron thinks this will work.

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cptninc t1_jdemzri wrote

I'm curious who will be writing the tickets. The lazy guys are supposedly already understaffed and have no additional capacity for writing tickets. The parking department has the staff, but this will pull them away from the squares where they currently operate.

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Objective-Ad4009 t1_jdfod93 wrote

I think this is the good idea. Cambridge will save money and make money.

It will also destroy Phil’s and B&B.

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Adventurous-Bowl-192 t1_jdkkpm1 wrote

I lived in Somerville for 2 years, and they already had this program. It worked fine and most people move their cars to avoid the ticket

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Fleur75 t1_jdey9gh wrote

It’s going to be a mess. Students and anyone who leaves for extended periods of time have zero incentive to move their cars. This is another policy made under the guise of helping low income people but really just benefits more wealthy people who just don’t care about the $50.

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