Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Wednesday November 16 2016, @03:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the oi,-shift! dept.

It's barely been a week since New York started allowing people to go online and report vehicles blocking bike lanes, and the city has already logged more than 200 of these annoying and dangerous violations.

As predicted on CityLab, there now exists a map of illegal parking in bike lanes. Based on tips to New York's 311 app and website, the city-produced map shows alleged lane violations occurring mostly in Manhattan and Brooklyn with a decent smattering in Queens. Red dots indicate situations where the police "responded to the complaint and took action to fix the condition," according to NYC Open Data. Blue ones denote where police decided "action was not necessary," where the offending vehicle had skedaddled before cops arrived, and complaints with insufficient info from tipsters.

Drivers block bike lanes because city blocks do not have designated unloading zones.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by JNCF on Wednesday November 16 2016, @03:54AM

    by JNCF (4317) on Wednesday November 16 2016, @03:54AM (#427348) Journal

    Too bad your work involves delivery driving because now you're fired.

    Speaking of which... listen America, we need to talk. You know that thing where UPS trucks illegally park in turn the center turn lane, and UPS isn't held accountable for it as an institution? Either I get to haphazardly set up a taco-truck in the turn lane whenever I want, or that needs to stop. You don't get to park in a turn lane -- or a bike lane -- just because you work for UPS. UPS needs to figure out reasonable company policies that account for parking time.

    What's that, nobody cares about my opinion and those parking laws will still get enforced selectively in a way that avoids impacting the illegal business practices of large corporations? Shit.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2016, @04:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2016, @04:08AM (#427355)

    No. Wrong.
    The city needs to fix the problem by implementing places that couriers can park for a short period of time.
    Logistics is the lifeblood of a city.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by JNCF on Wednesday November 16 2016, @04:13AM

      by JNCF (4317) on Wednesday November 16 2016, @04:13AM (#427359) Journal

      After posting, I actually googled; I guess that they do get ticketed, and that is just part of their operating cost. [nypost.com] It seems bizarre to me, then, that I've seen at least two cops drive straight past illegally parked UPS trucks without writing tickets. Weak game, piggies. It does nullify OP's (your?) fear, though, if ever it was valid: the delivery companies pay the tickets, and want bike-lane-blockers on their payroll. Somehow, getting fined less than you make for breaking the law on a regular basis seems like pretty sketchy practice for a corporation. Maybe the punishment should be reconsidered? Monetary fines are generally cringey anyway, affecting as they do rich and poor folks in unequal measure.

      Of course infrastructure should be improved.

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 16 2016, @04:22AM

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 16 2016, @04:22AM (#427363) Journal

        Having driven delivery trucks in NYC - yes, it's illegal, and you can be ticketed if you choose the wrong illegal parking spot. But it does seem to be an accepted practice. The cops expect to see trucks blocking streets and alley, despite the law. Trucker mostly expect to be left alone. And, the public expects those trucks to be there - it's a daily occurrence after all.

        And yes, tickets are part of the cost of doing business. It's all accounted for, and written off in one fashion or another.

        But, you don't want to be the truck driver who blatantly and wrecklessly blocks something like a hospital entrance. Or a police station, or God forbid, the local donut shop. You'll probably be beaten senseless before you are tossed into the back of a car or van and arrive at the jail house with a broken neck.

        • (Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday November 16 2016, @05:20AM

          by frojack (1554) on Wednesday November 16 2016, @05:20AM (#427377) Journal

          Short of rebuilding the cities I don't see how this can be avoided.

          The rage here is that it is a corporation doing it.

          When it was Joe's Dray and Delivery, and it was horse drawn, they parked in the lane and loaded and unloaded for the same amount of time. This has been the practice since before there were cars.

          Lets just make a it illegal to deliver packages at all in NYC over the Holidays and see how long the residents take burn down City Hall and hoist JNCF up a flag pole.

          Soon the trucks will be gone and you will complain about raining packages from drones.

          Hey JNCF, how does your food get to a store near you?

          --
          No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
          • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday November 16 2016, @06:07AM

            by JNCF (4317) on Wednesday November 16 2016, @06:07AM (#427391) Journal

            Hey JNCF, how does your food get to a store near you?

            Bad example. I can't think of a single food store, big or small, that I've seen stocking goods from a UPS truck parked in the center turn lane. It isn't really convenient for large deliveries, and food stores generally have enough parking for their delivery trucks. The whole petrol-powered-truck food delivery system is dystopian, but it doesn't really relate to flagrant disregard for parking violations by neer-do-well delivery corporations. If you're trying to prove that I'm hypocritical in my petty internet ragings, you should just ask if I have ever used UPS.
             
            SPOILERS: I'm hypocritical in my petty internet ragings.

            • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 16 2016, @04:04PM

              by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 16 2016, @04:04PM (#427567) Journal

              Funny - our local grocer occupies the north end of the block in town. He also owns the building adjacent, to the south. His groceries are deliverd by tractor trailer. When a shorter rig delivers, it backs in to the rear of the building, from the east. When the truck is straightened out, it blocks one lane of that back street. When a longer rig delivers (about half the time, it seems) then one and a half lanes are blocked. Smaller cars can get by alright, a full shized pickup has to drive onto the sidewalk to get around. Nobody cares, around here. It's been that way for generations, and no one expects things to change.

              I don't know how long the family has been running the grocery, but it's at least a hundred years. I was shown a photo of that street from about 1905 or so, and there was the building, with the family name painted across the building.

              That's life in Small Town, America.

          • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday November 16 2016, @01:00PM

            by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday November 16 2016, @01:00PM (#427492) Journal

            Short of rebuilding the cities I don't see how this can be avoided.

            We don't have to do anything that drastic. We already have lots of preexisting potential loading/unloading zones. They're called fire hydrants. Almost none of them are used on a daily basis for fire suppression; they do, however, take up that space on a daily basis, 24 hrs/day. Meter them in 5- or 10 minute increments, linked with a driver's smartphone, such that if the hydrants are needed for fire suppression the driver is alerted and given 3 minutes to move; the alerts can be sent out for hydrants adjacent to locations where fires are reported automatically, so that they're clear by the time the fire trucks arrive.

            --
            Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2016, @03:36PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2016, @03:36PM (#427545)

          the local donut shop

          I thought it was all dunkin donuts now:

          “At the direction of authorities, select Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in the Boston area are open to take care of needs of law enforcement and first responders,” spokeswoman Lindsay Harrington explained via email. “We are encouraging our guests to state home today and abide by the lockdown, per the Governor’s recommendation.”

          http://www.boston.com/businessupdates/2013/04/19/cops-request-dunkin-donuts-stays-open/a981LXWXrfuZAAgnIM1YjL/story.html [boston.com]

      • (Score: 2) by bradley13 on Wednesday November 16 2016, @02:10PM

        by bradley13 (3053) on Wednesday November 16 2016, @02:10PM (#427509) Homepage Journal

        The question is: what does the city actually want? If they (or their citizens) want prompt deliveries for inexpensive prices, then trucks needs to park close to the delivery address. If the city doesn't want to create zillions of parking places - which will then encourage commuting by car, increase traffic, etc. - then they pretty much have to tolerate delivery vehicles parking illegally.

        If you prohibit illegal parking by delivery vehicles (and really enforce it, with high fines for repeat offenders, etc.) AND you refuse to provide legal parking spaces? The result will be a lack of delivery services, or else much higher delivery charges for that area.

        Most places seem to choose the first option: tolerate illegal parking. A few places I know legalize this with special permits, which doesn't change the fact that the trucks block bike lanes, driveways, sidewalks, or whatever else...

        --
        Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2016, @05:53PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2016, @05:53PM (#427645)

        Perhaps the cops were busy looking for violations of laws that actually matter, not ticketing every single violation they happen to see.

  • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday November 16 2016, @07:47PM

    by urza9814 (3954) on Wednesday November 16 2016, @07:47PM (#427721) Journal

    Man, I regularly see police officers illegally parked sideways across multiple handicap spaces...while they run in for a pack of cigarettes. And *these* are the people you expect to start writing tickets for parking violations?