City of Cambridge- Traffic, Parking & Transportation

Staff was super friendly and pleasant — I went on a Monday evening and no one was there, so I got my visitor pass in about 5 minutes. Overall a good experience.

I am not one to usually write reviews, but I need to vent about this situation. Finding parking is never a problem so that is why they get 3 stars. However I have received two tickets in the matter of a week. I have never received a ticket in my life (I am 28) until recently. Both times I got stuck on the phone with a patient, and then was parked over my metered time by 5 – 10 minutes. I totally understand their policies and would expect during busy business hours they would be very strict, but 20 minutes before 6 (when the meter policy ends is ridiculous). I have seen the meter people sit out in their truck waiting for the meter to finish too! My last and biggest complaint is that yes I have been over on the parking time, but maybe I wouldn’t have been if the meters actually accepted some of my quarters. I have put in quarters, that I believe are the newer ones (not actually sure as I don’t pay attention to what I have put in) and my time does not increase. I probably have lost about an hour or so of meter time, which easily pays for those 2 small incidents. Get your machines updated or put a notice!
**Just an update as of a few weeks ago! I appealed my 2^nd ticket with a decent explanation of what happened and informed them I completely understood their policies but sometimes something’s happen. It actually got approved and the ticket was dropped so I am glad to see they have a little heart at the actual office!***

Impossible. Everything to say has already been said. This is the most impossible office to communicate with. The answer is always ‘no.’

This is the most incompetent traffic office I have ever dealt with. Living in several cities throughout the US I have never experienced the amount of complete disregard for human need as I have with this office. I am a employee in Cambridge in need of a parking permit for my work commitments. My commitments involve transporting children M-​F where my vehicle is needed on a moments notice. I have been reminded several times I may not use my employers resident visitor pass more than 3 consecutive days and that they do not have ANY OTHER PERMIT OPTIONS. They told me to find off street parking (yeah right!?), where that will come from– who knows. They have NO temporary parking passes that last longer than 3 days and all permits they have are residential. They basically told me «oh well» and could care less that I am effected and may have to now quit my job. I’m willing to pay and go through the motions for whatever it would take to get a pass.
Id rather work with somerville.

If I could give them zero out of five stars instead, I would. This one out of five is too good for them. Cambridge is EXTREMELY «money-​hungry» and will ticket and tow your car faster than you can read their numerous signs (with just as many exceptions) on them. There’s very limited parking for those who do not live in Cambridge, and so you would think they would try to make it easier for those who do not live there but have to drive in for work. However, they do not care. They’ll do anything to ticket and/​or tow cars for revenue. I absolutely hate the City of Cambridge for their parking services.

These guys suck. Got a 25 dollar ticket while I took 3 minutes to go across the street to get change from Dado (the Toto wrap is delicious BTW) to feed the meter. The dude must have been hiding in a bush masturbating furiously at the thought of giving me a ticket while I was getting change. Appeal denied.

Somerville Traffic and Parking has been a nightmare for so long that I feel like I have to write a review to give them big ups for overhauling their system! In years past I have spent HOURS in line at STP, waiting to be helped, only to be turned away for having the wrong form/​ID/​geopolitical affiliation in order to wait in line again. This week I had to go to STP for a parking sticker — I’ve got a unique situation where I work, need a special permit, which has historically taken several phone calls, emails, personal visits to get arranged and produced. This time, I went in, there was a deli-​style «take a number» thing at the entrance, there was a TJMaxx style «please go to counter 3» automated system, and the head of STP was helpful and apologized for keeping me waiting for some small number of minutes.
I applaud their improvement, and I give a lot of credit to Susan Clippinger, the Director, for these changes. I hope the department is as smooth and user friendly for everyone who has to visit!

The ineptitude of this department is mind-​boggling. For one, they have it set that EVERY resident permit in the city expires on exactly the same day (Jan 31), creating massive lines and inconvenience for its residents. And of course, they’re out there ticketing like mad every February 1^st to make money off the residents who forgot, couldn’t afford to spend 3 hours in line or were missing a piece of paperwork.
Somerville, typically a model of municipal greed run amok and ticketing for revenue and not for safety, staggers its permit renewal dates throughout the year.
Recently I got a couple of Cambridge tickets that I felt were unfairly issued. One was last winter when I got an unpaid meter ticket for a meter that was buried in snow (remember how much snow we had last winter?). Apparently I was supposed to risk injury and have wet shoes all day to stick a quarter into a meter. My appeal was denied.
I also got a pair of tickets 2 hours apart for parking in a «2 hour parking» zone near Harvard Square that apparently had a hidden pay-​to-​park kiosk at the end of the street that was not visible from where I parked. The signs made no mention of it and I was given one ticket for not seeing the hidden kiosk and another for being over 2 hours (2 hours and 4 minutes, to be exact). I appealed these tickets and received no word — only a late notice increasing the amount because I had failed to appeal or pay by a certain date.
Cambridge — when you catch people parking unsafely, ticket them and most people will pay it or provide a valid excuse for dismissal. But sneaky «gotcha!» tactics, inaccurate signage and poorly thought out permitting processes are no way to run a department in a city that is home to two world-​class universities.

Ok, Steve LaRosa. I’ve had just about enough of you. The company I work for requested a permit online, which we received. So far, so good. We found out that the signs had not been placed the requested 40′ apart but approximately 10′. My colleague called to see what we should do about it, got talked down to by Steve, yelled at by Steve and then hung up on by Steve. He behaves very poorly very consistently.

So I’ve had exactly two interactions with this office, both of which went just fine:
(1) Got myself a visitor parking pass for the odd car-​driving visitor. Mailed in a gas bill (for proof of residency) and a small check, got a pass back in a week, no sweat.
(2) During the carnival of chaos that was my last move, I overlooked getting reserved parking for my moving truck until well past the deadline to apply. I sent in my application anyway, and sure enough, the day before the move, the city’s parking elves put up those familiar temporary no-​parking signs right where I needed them. Plenty of other places, the bureaucracy would have stuck to the letter of its rules and declined the application just out of spite.

The Mushroom Sandwich @ City of Cambridge Café
AMBIANCE: 1 star
What?! Cambridge ain’t this cute little benevolent liberal intellectual college town with farmers’ markets?! A corrupt money sucking monarchy? GTFO! To the tune of $ 117,192,125.50 in documented 2009 salaries alone. No way. Seriously, low 9 figures, ya click the link.

99% of corporations in Cambridge don’t have 1% of that kind of revenue, never mind payroll. It’s uncertain, not measurable what type of value-​added product or service this «City of Cambridge» provides, an incorporated entity, whose performance review consists merely of a budget.
THE FOOD: 2 stars
Companies are like vegetables. They grow, make green stuff. And then they die, letting gov’t fungus eat them. Except we don’t have too many companies in Cambridge. What exists is a giant mushroom puffball blocking out sunlight. Harvard and MIT are weird fertilizers, they don’t pay taxes, but they definitely add value. They also keep the place pretty. Ever notice how Harvard Sq looks better kept than Porter? Or how Kendall looks better than Inman? We eat puffball sandwiches everyday basically, laced with fancy organic poop and trimmed with wilted veggies. Yum!
SERVICE: 3 stars
But! I appreciate efficiency, and the parking ticket system in Cambridge is incredible. It is, absolutely, the mustard on the sandwich. As a division, it is the best run part of City of Cambridge. The destroying angel of fungal Cambridge gub-​ment.
Since it generates incredible amounts of revenue, we invest in it, with computerization, training, huge payroll (unlike other types records, such as, oh, weddings, live births). I noticed the highest metermaid makes about 73K a year. It’s a big enterprise. Bigger than my bidness. Bigger than yours.
BOTTOM LINE: 2 stars
Ya know, It’s about making money for Robert Healy Jr., the King of Cambridge. He’s had the job of City Manager for 30+ years. Nice old dude. Only makes 5 figures! Every pay period! But you know, like low 5 figures. Like $ 11,232.08. Like more than a U.S. Senator. Plus whatever stuff passes through his skilled fingers. A master chef indeed.

I’d like to thank the folks at the City of Cambridge Parking Permit office for making life so, so, so incredibly easy. Coming from the land of beaurecratic paper-​pushing also known as Washington, D.C., I was expecting a nightmare when I realized I would have to both register my car & get a residential parking permit. Well, never in my life have I experienced a government operation that ran so efficiently, smoothly, and simply… I was able to get a visitor parking pass for the time it took me to get plates (which was another EASY process!) and then a parking permit without being humiliated or made to feel like a total moron! Huzzah!!! And! It was so incredibly cheap! only $ 8 and I can park in my neighborhood… this place is fantastic! No waiting in line, no headache of paperwork, an easy-​to-​use, informative website, and a friendly staff. My hat goes off to my new neighborhood… I am truly wowed by this painless process! phew!