Things Missed About RI - Parking
April 24, 2012 4:55 pmMood: Anti-social
Tagged with: rhode island, driving, parking, boston
I expected many things to be different when I moved to the Boston area but one thing I didn't account for was parking, or the utter lack thereof. Coming from Providence, a driving city, to Boston, a walking city, I was completely unprepared for the lack of space. There is zero parking, anywhere. I mean none, zilch, nada, zip. In Providence, or most any other Rhody town if you can't find a spot you can drive around a bit until you do. No such thing exists here. You can't drive around because around doesn't exist, its all one ways, narrow streets and rotaries. Taking 4 left turns does not put you back where you were, it puts you four towns over and across the damn river.
So here you're left stranded trying to find a spot, paying out the nose for a parking garage (if you can even find your way into one), or creating a spot of your own, a common tactic I've noticed.
Being lucky enough to find a spot is only 1/2 the battle. If you don't have quarters for the meters, or you created your own spot where you really shouldn't have, you'll get run through by the parking meter ninja brigade. These people are not your average run of the mill city worker, oh no, not even close, they are stealthy assassins that you never see coming until its too late leaving a bright orange envelop in their wake. The fines, outrageous. In Providence it is a $20 or so dollar expense if your meter runs out, not too bad to choke down. The Boston meter ninjas run you out about $55 and that's on top of any other issues they find wrong from inspections out of date to being too close to a fire hydrant. A ten minute stop in the store could turn into a $120+ adventure.
Having quarters on hand is critical, as is having a small vehicle. People park like assholes to the extent that you can't fit a VW Bug anywhere in this city mainly because the jag-off who parked there went over the lines or parked cockeyed. The spaces themselves are your enemy being barely big enough to fit your average 4 door Toyota.
For those of you thinking "well yea, that's Boston", think again. Save for the backwoods of Western Mass every town and residence area is littered with cars fighting for space. Two way streets become narrow Indiana Jones style escapes, each turn taking you further down a One Way dead end with no feasible parking in sight. It is a parking and vehicle battle of biblical proportions.
It's funny to think that the smallest state in the country has the most amount of space for parking. Of all things to miss parking was certainly one of the least expected. Drive happy Rhode Islanders... and treat your space like gold.
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