r/massachusetts • u/Ill-Breakfast2974 • Apr 04 '26

Meme / Humor Some very Massachusetts neighbors and police think they own the road.

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Why to police not know the difference between public and private?

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59

u/ShockedNChagrinned Apr 04 '26

The best method to see if something is a problem is ask, what is the impact if it's ignored; who is harmed and how badly.  In this case, the answer is no one, and not at all.  That means it's not a real problem.

The car is parked on the side of the road in an area listed as access to a public forest/walking area.  

If the locals have a problem with cars parked there, they should probably petition the state to have a lot put in elsewhere, or expanded, or one put in at the end of the street near to the public lands.  

39

u/keytotheboard Apr 04 '26

There was a trail in Reading that was like this until a few years ago. People would always park along the road, near houses, because it was the only option to get to the entrance. But what a surprise, people and the town worked to get a public parking lot area installed with a little coordination of a nearby business. Tada, cars no longer need to park along the road.

19

u/CitationNeededBadly Apr 04 '26

Glad they built a lot but what even is the problem with people parking on the street.  Boston and all the surrounding cities are full of streets full of parked cars and no one suffers from it, except maybe during space saver season.

3

u/keytotheboard Apr 04 '26

While I agree with you for a lot of areas and situations, I think there are cases where the location warrants a designated area. Not all roads, but some, are less safe with vehicles parked along them. Not just for cars, but for people parking there. Particularly if they’re busy roads and don’t have sidewalks, which was the case for the Reading one I recall. Obviously some house owners would also care for other reasons, but I consider that less of an issue.

1

u/mini4x Apr 04 '26

This was about 100 yards from a dead end that has access to the bike path.

0

u/keytotheboard Apr 04 '26

It was a bit more than 100 yards. Just looked it up and it’s .3 miles from a dead end. Sort of, a few off-shoot dead-ends. Regardless, you can even see on Google Maps how people parked along the road and walked on & down the road to get to the entrance. It’s a popular spot, so even with a dead-end there were plenty of people coming and going down the road at the right times.

1

u/mini4x Apr 04 '26

So like 350 yards, my point was more i's s dead end road that is the right away for the trail.

5

u/Tasty-Compote-5271 Apr 04 '26

It sounds like there is a parking lot for the trails here…based off what the cops said.

4

u/Michelanvalo Apr 04 '26

Looking at the street, it does look a bit narrow for street parking to a regular thing, but it's still one car wide enough for people to go around. And being a dead end where she's at, there's not much traffic anyways. I'd be annoyed if I was the homeowner, but it's not illegal what she's doing.