When Parking in Chinatown

Things to do to avoid donating to the City Budget (how not to get a parking fine)

Have you not already heard that the City budget is short or that the State needs another gazillion dollars to fix bridges and highways? The City of Boston has an answer to that problem: You! Or more specifically, handing out those orange color parking tickets. Disregard paying that fine? The powers that be has a Terminator-like seeking SUV that will wreck tow your vehicle.

Many people visit Chinatown each year. For those who do not have access to public transportation, driving and parking in Chinatown is their only means of getting here. However, some may not be aware of the rules of parking in the neighborhood. Just because a meter space exists, that does not mean a vehicle can be parked legally. Please check the parking signs at all times. The Blogger has a rule of thumb for parking: when in doubt of the space, do not park in the space.

1. Peak Hours Ban on Parking
Certain streets are barred from parking during weekday peak hours of 4pm-6pm. This is true for Kneeland and Essex Street. The Boston Transportation Department tow trucks and parking enforcement will be on these streets by 3:45pm waiting for the next sucker offender. Someone’s gotta pay the bills, right?

2. Watch out for Residents Parking Only and Street Cleaning signs
To avoid a ticket, watch out for resident parking only signs. Most of the signs are confusing to outsiders but take the time to read them and don’t assume anything. The difficulty with these types of parking spots is that during the day the spaces are available to anyone but at a certain time flips to resident parking only. Here is an example at Marginal Road. Between 10pm-6am the left side of the street is for resident parking only.

3. Out of Order Meters
When the meter is Out of Order you can legally park in the space unless there are posted signs indicating otherwise. The Out of Order meter will give you a 1 hour grace period, unless the meter is fixed within that time you were away and your vehicle may still be liable for a ticket. This applies only when the meter says “Out of Order”. Even if the meter is malfunctioning (after you deposited several quarters) but displays the blinking time of 0:00, you will still be ticketed. Do not even attempt to place a brown paper bag or paper saying meter is out of order. The parking enforcement officer’s job is to write tickets, not check if meters are functioning properly. FYI: meters only take quarters which gives increments of 15min, so make sure you have enough.

4. Do Not Leave Vehicle Unattended or Double-Park
Do not leave your vehicle for even 5 minutes (unless emergency). Do not think that you can outrun the enforcement officers. The Boston Transportation Department drives a van around the block with 4-5 Terminators officers inside. The Chinatown Blogger has seen them cover a whole street block with tickets in a minute and then disappear.

5. Park in a Lot
Sometimes the best way to avoid a parking fine is to well… pay for a parking lot. There are many parking lots around Chinatown and when you need a space quick, that may be the best bet than to risk the wrath of the parking enforcer. Drive and park safely.

This entry was posted on June 26, 2008 at 12:56 pm and is filed under WORD ON THE STREET. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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