The snowstorm is over, and Boston’s French Toast Alert System is down to two slices as residents continue to dig out. But just as street parking begins to clear, seemingly random items begin to appear in these spaces — a table, a trash can, a beach chair. Is it trash day, or are people just littering?
These oddball items are how Bostonians reserve their residential street parking spaces after spending hours digging them out after a major storm, reports WCVB. When the city declares a snow emergency, street parking is banned along major roads so that snowplows and emergency vehicles have access. People who live along these roads must find somewhere else to park, even if they have a resident permit to park there. If those residents live on a street where their car can still be parked curbside, after the storm is over, it’s time for them to dig out their car and the associated parking space (more than just the snow that’s fallen, snow plow leftovers may have buried their car).
Once that’s done, residents can drive their cars, hopefully returning to the parking space they just dug out — unless some lazy jerk who couldn’t bother to shovel out their own space has already parked there. To prevent this, people put items in the parking spaces they dig out to “reserve” them until they can park their cars there.
The dos and don’ts of Boston winter parking
This isn’t just common courtesy, but an officially sanctioned practice by the city. After all, Boston drivers are the worst, and the only way they’re going to be courteous is if the law requires them to. Fortunately for the rest of us, it also requires them to only use space savers during official snow emergencies and to remove them within 48 hours after the emergency ends.
What if someone does the unthinkable, moves a space saver and pakrs in the space anyway? The law only permits space savers to be used, so you can’t call the city and get the Masshole who stole your spot towed away. Common decency and peer pressure seem to keep most people in line, though. Vigilante justice takes care of the others. From CBS News:
“If I came back in an hour, when I was done with this, and someone parked in my spot? I probably would fill their car up with snow, so they would have to dig it out,” said Allston resident Patrick Farrell.
This is probably the tamest retribution one can expect for violating this most sacred pact. Another resident left a note on a chair threatening to break the windows of any car that parked there. Anyone who’s ever watched a Bruins game knows Bostonians don’t back down from a fight. It’s a practice that dates back to the Boston Massacre, which helped spark the American Revolution. You’re welcome. Now gimme my Dunkin’ iced coffee.
