With so few available parking spaces, what’s a Cantabrigian to do?
Not once in his lengthy article about the increasing failure of people in Cambridge to move their cars for street cleaning does reporter Spencer Buell mention any possible factor behind this phenomenon other than the city’s moratorium on towing the cars in question (“A sweeping problem in Cambridge,” Page A1, May 4).
In the past few years, massive amounts of street parking have been eliminated to accommodate bike and bus lanes, and the removal is ongoing. People without off-street spaces simply have nowhere to park if they’ve been unsuccessful at nabbing one of the scarce remaining spots.
Cambridge residents are fortunate in that they have to contend with street cleaning only twice monthly; in Somerville it’s an arguably excessive four-times-a-month event, so the scramble is constant.
Allison Stieber
Somerville
Current fine isn’t high enough to move the needle — or the vehicle
Your story on Cambridge’s experiment in substituting fines for towing to address cars that are parked illegally on street sweeping days indicated that raising the fine hasn’t gotten many drivers to move their cars. Obviously the fines are not high enough to change behavior.
If we cannot count on people to act in consideration of the community at large, perhaps we could take inspiration from countries such as Finland (and Sweden, Germany, and Denmark), which levy fines, for certain infractions, depending on the motorist’s income. A businessman in Finland was fined 54,000 euros for a speeding ticket.
Cambridge needs to do something to gain motorists’ attention, because the current $100 fine isn’t doing the trick.
Jane Siegel
Boston