Boston spaces...

kooky scientist · Post by **kooky scientist** » Wed Oct 17, 2012 8:59 pm

http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2012/10 ... story.html

Post by **ericalm** » Wed Oct 17, 2012 9:04 pm

Hooray! MUCH needed from what I've heard!

siobhan · Post by **siobhan** » Wed Oct 17, 2012 11:18 pm

This is GREAT! Thanks for posting.

jonlink · Post by **jonlink** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 12:14 am

Except that none of those spots offer a way to secure the scoot. Total deal breaker for me. For an hour or so this is helpful, but it's still useless in terms of leaving a scooter alone while at work. This makes me worry because it gives the city more of an excuse to ticket people while not really solving the problem.

I don't care about paying to park in Boston, but I don't want a long walk home after finding an empty space where my scooter once was.

Post by **ericalm** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 5:52 am

Can you park all day at a meter there? In LA most are limited to 2 hours, max., some 1 hour.

amy · Post by **amy** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 11:28 am

jonlink wrote:Except that none of those spots offer a way to secure the scoot. Total deal breaker for me. For an hour or so this is helpful, but it's still useless in terms of leaving a scooter alone while at work. This makes me worry because it gives the city more of an excuse to ticket people while not really solving the problem.

I don't care about paying to park in Boston, but I don't want a long walk home after finding an empty space where my scooter once was.

I'm confused - how this would give the city an excuse to ticket people?

Also, how is it not a step towards solving the problem of parking spaces for motorcycles and scooters? It seems like 15 steps to me.

ed85379 · Post by **ed85379** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 4:17 pm

amy wrote:
jonlink wrote:Except that none of those spots offer a way to secure the scoot. Total deal breaker for me. For an hour or so this is helpful, but it's still useless in terms of leaving a scooter alone while at work. This makes me worry because it gives the city more of an excuse to ticket people while not really solving the problem.

I don't care about paying to park in Boston, but I don't want a long walk home after finding an empty space where my scooter once was.
I'm confused - how this would give the city an excuse to ticket people?

Also, how is it not a step towards solving the problem of parking spaces for motorcycles and scooters? It seems like 15 steps to me.

The excuse to ticket people is the people currently parking on sidewalks for free. Mostly these are overlooked, but once metered spots for them are around, the city may decide to start enforcing parking regulations for scoots on sidewalks.

And the maximum time for a meter is 2 hours. You cannot just plunk in more quarters either. Technically you have to move your vehicle to another spot, a minimum distance away, after the 2 hours, which is, of course, impossible. So, other than stopping somewhere for lunch or dinner, these spots are useless.

jonlink · Post by **jonlink** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 12:13 am

Via City of Boston website: "The meter rate is 25 cents per hour but there is no time limit, allowing scooter and motorcycle owners to feed the meter for the day."

It isn't a step forward because they aren't offering folks a way to secure the scooter. That means they are useless. Boston has a fair amount of scooter theft. It would be negligent of a scooter owner to leave their scoot unlocked for hours every day in a predictable location. It solves the city's problem of not having an alternative to point to when trying to ticket, but it doesn't solve the problem of scooter owners not having a viable alternative to parking on sidewalks and/or bike racks.

thatvwbusguy · Post by **thatvwbusguy** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:57 am

The sad truth is that unless you are locking your scooter inside a garage with an alarm, there is pretty much no way to really secure it from someone who wants to steal it. The high incidence of bystander apathy coupled with the constant ambient noise in large cities like Boston makes it very likely that you could cut off a lock and throw a scooter in the back of a truck and still wind up with a "nobody saw anything" situation more often than not. Fear of retribution makes people hesitant to risk their safety to help prevent the theft of a stranger's property.

I once had a Trek mountain bike stolen from my friends 2nd story porch in the Back Bay. It was locked with a Kryptonite U-lock to a steel handrail, but it was still gone 4 hours later when we returned from a show and none of the neighbors noticed anything sketchy or heard anything unusual.

On the bright side, the fact that the new scooter spots are fairly narrow and will most likely be heavily used means that if you lock your steering column and use a disc lock with a motion activated siren like the Xena or the Bully, it will at least be a major pain in the butt to pull your scoot out of the spot without making a major scene that might give the potential theif a good reason to reconsider boosting your ride.

jonlink · Post by **jonlink** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 5:16 pm

thatvwbusguy wrote:The sad truth is that unless you are locking your scooter inside a garage with an alarm, there is pretty much no way to really secure it from someone who wants to steal it.

I half agree with you. If a well equipped thief wants to steal something, it isn't hard. However, an unlocked scooter doesn't require the thief to be equipped at all. The opportunity goes up exponentially as does the chance of theft.

ed85379 · Post by **ed85379** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 5:19 pm

jonlink wrote:
thatvwbusguy wrote:The sad truth is that unless you are locking your scooter inside a garage with an alarm, there is pretty much no way to really secure it from someone who wants to steal it.
I half agree with you. If a well equipped thief wants to steal something, it isn't hard. However, an unlocked scooter doesn't require the thief to be equipped at all. The opportunity goes up exponentially as does the chance of theft.

Exactly. If a scooter is chained, someone at least needs a good pair of bolt cutters, and those are pretty big and obvious. Not chained up, someone driving by with a couple buddies in a pickup truck can toss one in the back in 10 seconds flat, disc-lock or not. And people, in general, completely ignore vehicle alarms going off. I would not leave my scooter anywhere for hours at a time without it being securely chained.

kooky scientist · Post by **kooky scientist** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:24 am

I always chain lock to a post or fence when I'm in Boston. I just don't park on narrow sidewalks and never got a ticket. Don't even need the chain in my day to day up here on the North Shore...

jonlink · Post by **jonlink** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:26 pm

I have never gotten a ticket, but I did get a talking to from a parking officer near Kenmore square. I was leaving and he told me to park on the street. I asked where to lock the scooter and he said try the meter (meaning I would take up two spots and/or need a much longer chain). When I said it was unreasonable, he said he'd give me a ticket if he saw me again. He wasn't happy when I told him he should do what he had to do.

I parked about 500m away when I came back and never got a ticket. I also park regularly near Haymarket station. I do so in plain sight of police officers. They've never given me so much as a look.

Moral: at the moment Boston still seems very reasonable with regards to scooter parking. I'm just worried about the future.

ed85379 · Post by **ed85379** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:34 pm

jonlink wrote:I have never gotten a ticket, but I did get a talking to from a parking officer near Kenmore square. I was leaving and he told me to park on the street. I asked where to lock the scooter and he said try the meter (meaning I would take up two spots and/or need a much longer chain). When I said it was unreasonable, he said he'd give me a ticket if he saw me again. He wasn't happy when I told him he should do what he had to do.

I parked about 500m away when I came back and never got a ticket. I also park regularly near Haymarket station. I do so in plain sight of police officers. They've never given me so much as a look.

Moral: at the moment Boston still seems very reasonable with regards to scooter parking. I'm just worried about the future.

Sounds like you were dealing with a guy having a bad day and looking to take it out on others, or, just an every-day masshole.

I did get a ticket once, a year and a half ago on Summer St. I only started regularly parking on a sidewalk again 5 months ago. This sidewalk is huge though, abutting a loading zone, and there are no meters there to draw parking officers' attention. Also, there are lots of scooters further down, on the same sidewalk, where there actually are meters. Not to mention, regularly there are a couple motorcycles as well. I feel pretty safe from tickets at the moment. I did see one scooter, a couple months back, that was ticketed, but I am assuming that it was left there overnight or something.

kooky scientist · Post by **kooky scientist** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:39 pm

Not sure about downtown but I think at the moment they are more concerned with the Newbury St. area. I usually lock up on Comm. Ave and walk over all of 2 blocks...