2006 Massachusetts Code - Chapter 40 — Section 22A. Parking meters; fees; exemption from fees for disabled veterans and handicapped persons; bicycle locking devices; restricted parking areas for veterans and handicapped persons.

Section 22A. Any city or town, for the purpose of enforcing its ordinances, by-laws and orders, rules and regulations relating to the parking of vehicles on ways within its control and subject to the provisions of section two of chapter eighty-five, may appropriate money for the acquisition, installation, maintenance and operation of parking meters, or by vote of the city council or of the town may authorize a board or officer to enter into agreement for such acquisition, installation or maintenance of parking meters; provided, that the city of Boston, for the purpose of enforcing the rules and regulations adopted by its traffic and parking commission, or promulgated by its commissioner of traffic and parking, under chapter two hundred and sixty-three of the acts of nineteen hundred and twenty-nine, may appropriate money for the acquisition, installation, maintenance and operation of parking meters, or, by vote of the city council of said city, subject to the provisions of its charter, may authorize the traffic and parking commission of said city to enter into agreements for the acquisition, installation or maintenance of parking meters. An agreement for the acquisition or installation of parking meters may provide that payments thereunder shall be made over a period not exceeding five years without appropriation, from fees received for the use of such parking meters notwithstanding the provisions of section fifty-three of chapter forty-four. Such fees shall be established and charged at such rates that the revenue therefrom shall not exceed in the aggregate the necessary expenses incurred by such city or town for the acquisition, installation, maintenance and operation of parking meters and the regulation of parking and other traffic activities incident thereto. No fee shall be exacted and no penalty shall be imposed for the parking of any vehicle owned and driven by a disabled veteran or by a handicapped person and bearing the distinctive number plates authorized by section two of chapter ninety, or for any vehicle transporting a handicapped person and displaying the special parking identification plate authorized by said section two of said chapter ninety or for any vehicle bearing the official identification of a handicapped person issued by any other state or any Canadian Province. Any city or town may, in accordance with the provisions of this section, acquire and operate coin-operated locking devices for bicycle parking. A city or town may, in accordance with the provisions of this section, authorize the parking of more than one motorcycle in a single parking space and may impose a penalty for the full amount of a violation of an ordinance, by-law, order, rule or regulation related to the parking of vehicles on ways within its control and subject to section 2 of chapter 85 for each motorcycle so parked in violation of any such ordinance, by-law, order, rule or regulation. No motorcycle shall be parked in such a manner so as to inhibit the means of egress of another motorcycle currently parked in the same parking space.

Any city or town acting under this section shall further regulate the parking of vehicles on ways within its said control by restricting certain areas thereon for the parking of any vehicle owned and driven by a disabled veteran or handicapped person whose vehicle bears the distinctive number plates authorized by section two of chapter ninety or for any vehicle transporting a handicapped person and displaying the special parking identification plate authorized by said section two of said chapter ninety, or for any vehicle bearing the official identification of a handicapped person issued by any other state, or any Canadian Province, or by prohibiting the parking or standing of any vehicles in such a manner as to obstruct any curb ramp designed for use by handicapped persons. Parking spaces designated as reserved under the provisions of this paragraph shall be identified by the use of above grade blue signs with white lettering against a blue background and shall bear the words “Handicapped Parking: Special Plate Required Unauthorized Vehicles May Be Removed at Owner’s Expense”; shall be as near as possible to a building entrance or walkway; shall be adjacent to curb ramps or other unobstructed methods permitting sidewalk access to a handicapped person; and shall be twelve feet wide or two eight-foot wide areas with four feet of cross hatch between them. The cost of acquisition, installation and maintenance and operation of any signs or other regulatory devices used to designate such restricted areas shall be considered as a necessary expense for the regulation of parking and shall be paid from appropriations authorized by this section. Any such ordinance, by-law, order, rule or regulation promulgated pursuant to this paragraph shall contain a penalty of not less than $100 nor more than $300 and shall provide for the removal of a vehicle in accordance with section 22D. This penalty shall not be a surchargeable offense under section 113B of chapter 175.