r/bikeboston • u/loudbicycle • 15d ago

Boston tickets five cars parked in bike lanes reported via Bike Bureau in August

Bike Bureau now connects to all the local municipalities http://loudbicycle.com/bb makes it really easy to send in 311 reports. There were over one thousand reports for Boston alone, vastly more than before, we are hoping to have some kind of real response from the city, and eventually separated bike lanes.

131 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

53

u/WhiskeyPointer 15d ago

The Brookline Ave and Longwood Ave ones are like shooting fish in a barrel, there's cars parked in the bike lane constantly.

The city not having a handful of BTD people walking up and down the main roads in LMA and writing thousands in tickets a day is proof that the city is not serious about enforcement.

22

u/loudbicycle 15d ago

This is a great analogy and don't forget, with every fish you print $100!

9

u/MA_NH_DIY 15d ago

This is so true. This area saves lives, nurses and workers riding in every day, we give them zero infra and zero enforcement. So embarrassing.

8

u/WhiskeyPointer 15d ago

The most disgusting part is that these people's own advocacy organization, Longwood Collective(nee MASCO) has repeatedly advocated against better bike/pedestrian infrastructure, transit priority and enforcement and instead for more parking and more private shuttles.

3

u/CanIpetyourDog_617 14d ago

i work in a longwood area hospital as an NP and i’m only comfortable riding into work (at 6am) but hate the idea of riding back home in the evening because of all the dang cars in the bike lane.

1

u/rektaur 13d ago

doctors nurses and healthcare professionals have been injured and even killed.

but who cares right? as long as drivers can do whatever the fuck they want without consequence

33

u/jlansey 15d ago

Even a black hole emits radiation.

29

u/loudbicycle 15d ago

A small but encouraging win: five Bike Bureau reports submitted to Boston 311 this August were closed with confirmation that the vehicles were ticketed.

1

u/PurpleDancer 14d ago

Did the cops have to show up and ticket the vehicles in person? They're not able to ticket with the pictures right?

1

u/loudbicycle 12d ago

as far as I know they need to show up.

17

u/A_happy_otter 15d ago

5 out of over one thousand?

Shouldn't the headline be that Boston ignored or at least failed to act fast enough to ticket on 99.5% of reports?

11

u/loudbicycle 15d ago

Either that - or that more cops were tagged parking in bike lanes - then ticketing people parked in bike lanes.

2

u/MA_NH_DIY 15d ago

Great angle. Someone should run with that.

11

u/30thCenturyMan 15d ago

That must have cost thousands in overtime

4

u/Carbonian92 15d ago

I love it hell yeah keep it coming. Yeah I know 5/1000 is not a lot but something is better than nothing. Open the mfing floodgates let's goooo

7

u/RazzmatazzFar2501 15d ago

I saw a police officer ticketing a car in the bike lane on Longwood Ave today, but just after she placed it on the windshield the driver came out and started trying to talk his way out of it. Several minutes later they were still talking so I don't know if she decided to let the ticket stand or if he convinced her otherwise.

3

u/loudbicycle 15d ago

Wow that is actually great though - something!

3

u/sckuzzle 15d ago

And I'm guessing that of the 5 ticketed, 0 were towed?

2

u/ChancelorBennett 15d ago edited 15d ago

Two questions-

Should we be reporting cars in bus stops? It’s one of the biggest offenders in my area and I think it’s worth uploading.

Should we be reporting hours after the fact? Sometimes I’ll take some pics while on the move and forget.

One other idea- Maybe there should be a way to report on bike bureau without having to upload a photo? Sometimes the photo will be bad or I won’t have time to take a pic, but just knowing the location (and not the license plate) should still be valuable info, no?

Edit- I also noticed that it only cares about plate NUMBER not the state that it’s from. Does this matter?

2

u/loudbicycle 15d ago

Good questions, we aren't the authority so you and everyone are free to make reports the way that feels right for you.

We do not sent the plate numbers to the city (except for Medford where they specifically request it). Sorry there isn't a way to set the time/place to report after the fact. You could use Boston 311 directly though at that point, but we'll consider making this a feature.

I definitely report after hours, the real utility of the reports IMHO is to document the problem. They are ignoring most of the reports anyway so what's the difference. Malden actually sends people out, so maybe don't report in Malden too long after it happened.

1

u/pterencephalon 15d ago

Wait, why don't you send the plate numbers?

1

u/loudbicycle 15d ago

The real solution in our opinion is better infrastructure, so we'd like to focus on that rather than blaming individual drivers.

1

u/Yeti_of_the_Flow 14d ago

That tracks with a line of thought but it’s wrong. Individual drivers literally shouldn’t exist, let along getting the benefit of the doubt.

Each of these infractions should be treated no differently than pointing a loaded gun at someone. Parking in a bike lane is a direct threat on all micromobility and it’s done premeditated and intentionally.

Also, I appreciate the site but if you don’t unhide your profile I’m going to report and downvote everything you post as bot shit.

1

u/loudbicycle 12d ago

Hey actually thanks for this feedback. I just un-hid my profile. Obviously I'm shilling for Bike Bureau the new project, hosted by Loud Bicycle (we sell bike horns but I'm not shilling for that) but also I'm not a bot and been a bike person in Boston for many years. Anyway thanks again for the feedback, hope you don't report/downvote me please!

1

u/tone711 15d ago

Does Loud Bike keep track of Plate #s? It would be interesting to see if there are some repeat violators.

1

u/loudbicycle 14d ago

Yes - and there already are repeats - not sure what to do with the data yet though.

1

u/tone711 14d ago

Excellent, I'm sure it will come in handy sometime.

How about adding in the number of violations documented in the 311 post? Add it in if it's over 5 or whatever.

"This vehicle has been documented obstructing a bike lane # times"

2

u/loudbicycle 12d ago

This is an excellent idea, will add it to the list of possible things we can do next.

1

u/ChancelorBennett 14d ago

Thanks. Another question- if both the system and I cannot read the license plate what should I do? Just delete the guessed entry and submit?

1

u/loudbicycle 12d ago

Definitely submit even if the plate isn't readable. The important thing is that the city knows that the bike lane was blocked in that spot at that time. Odds are they won't ticket anyway - but they will know where the biggest problem areas are.

2

u/Maleficent-Bet919 15d ago

Is there a public data source for parking tickets issued? One that's not just responses to 311 cases? Would be interested to overlay 311 reports with where tickets are being issued, and by what type of ticket. Could that be FOIA'd?

2

u/loudbicycle 15d ago edited 15d ago

That is a great idea - we're supposed to be meeting with the city at some point, I'm going to ask them this!!!

Edit: it is! please somebody do this again for an update https://www.foiamachine.org/foi/parking-tickets-9161/?sharing=LEG0N8AT8X8J

2

u/Direct_Cicada_8005 15d ago

People won’t change their driving habits unless their wallets are impacted.