I live at this address. I have lived here for a year. I am a student, from out-of-province, sharing a house with a narrow driveway with another housemate with a different schedule than mine. As as result, my car sometimes ends up in the street overnight, and a little bit longer than the “1 hour parking limit from 8-6” on this street.
I called you, TWICE, and told you this. You said I would need to register my car here to obtain an exemption permit. I am not about to transfer my registration from one province to another, especially not to a crappy student house which I am moving out of ASAP. I can fucking PROVE that I live here, and I offered to show my lease, and my fucking bedroom, if needed, and I was still denied an exemption permit.
And now you fucking TICKET ME?!?? Bite me, you goat felching assweasles.
[sub]Yeah, I paid the fine. It’s just 12$. But it’s the idea of it that pisses me off!!! Especially because the guy passed (literally) 10-15 minutes before I got up to move the damn car![/sub]
So – there is a remedy to your problem of having to park on the street for longer than is otherwise permitted without getting a ticket but you can’t be bothered to do it, so it is the city’s fault?
I can understand M’s frustration, as I am familiar with Hamilton’s parking laws; I live just next door in Mississauga. Of all the cities I’m familiar with, Hamilton’s parking bylaws are the most unfair and the most geared towards revenue production through citizen confusion. It’s very, very frustrating.
mske: I parked in the street last night because my housemate comes back later than me, and I needed the car sooner than he did, and I hate waking him up for the keys in the morning (and no, he does not have a spare set - for that matter, neither do I). I woke up to go move the car (and run my errand) and I had already been ticketed. As for the other “remedy”, I don’t think you understand - the exemption permit requires that I transfer my registration to THIS ADDRESS. I don’t want to do that, because its a waste of money, and I was only going to be here for the one year because I absolutely depise this house and other housemates. They would not give me the permit unless I transfered my registration, despite the fact that I can prove that I live here during the school year. I am a resident of Quebec, and I want to keep it that way (I am NOT an Ontarian!!!). It’s not really an issue of " not bothering to do it". Its a stupid rule that they have. IMHO. I’d venture to say that at least 70% of the people on this street are students, and a lot of us have cars, and we all have to shuffle the cars around in the driveway and hope to not get tagged because they won’t allow us to have a permit, even though we pay to live here. I guess they’re that desperate for money…
What, you mean those signs like “No parking between 10:15 and 3:45 on the 2nd & 3rd Wednesdays of any month ending in ‘Y’”? This may not be a real example but there are similar signs that come dangerously close to satire. And yes, this is a major source of revenue for the city. Have you ever seen a speed trap in Hamilton? I can answer that one for you. You haven’t. Issuing speeding tickets is too much effort.
Anyway, count yourself lucky. I got nailed with a $50 fiine for parking in a fire lane about 5 years ago. The damned sign had been obscured by ivy. I didn’t have the time to fight the thing so I bit the bullet and paid. Sigh…I wondered why I was lucky enough to get a spot so close to the house.
There is one sign near the firehouse close to here that says something along the lines of “No left turns between 3 and 6am”. I could understand the sign if it was PM - its a pretty busy street, but what is up with not being able to turn left (at a particular road) in the middle of the night? Hamilton is a damn weird city! I can’t wait to get out of this province…
I sympathize with you, really - draconian parking policies are downright evil. However, this reminds me of a problem my roommate had:
His car was hit. He took it into the shop for a few days and got a rental car. He didn’t bother to call the landlord until after they were closed, so he didn’t get a temporary parking permit. He parked in the parking lot anyway, because he couldn’t be bothered to park on the street a block away and walk. Then when his car got booted, he threw a fit about how unfair it was. Apparently, the towing company should have read his mind and known his situation so they wouldn’t boot him.
My point is, if you were aware of the regulations and the fact that you were not in compliance with them, you shouldn’t be surprised that you got a ticket. If you dislike the regulations, disobeying them is not the best way to protest, as you’ve discovered.
I too live in Mississauga and I went to school at McMaster, so I am very familiar with the parking in Hamilton.
I understand the situation perfectly. And while you could get a permit, you refuse to because you feel the situation is personally unfair.
So in essense, you spend 7 or 8 months of the year living “out of province” in Ontario. I trust that your automobile insurance covers you for such extended periods outside of Quebec.
Of course, you understand why the current system is in place, don’t you? Let’s see…
I think you just answered your own complaint. They of course will allow you to have a permit, but you need to register the car at the address you are living at.
Getting your phone hooked up by Bell at the start of the school year is pretty simple. You call, give your address and they flip some switches or press some buttons at the Central Office and everything works. But it still takes some time to get through to an operator in early September because 10,000 other students are trying to do the same thing.
So now imagine the poor clerks at the permit office at city hall having to process 3,000+ applications every September for street parking.
A generic “student permit” wouldn’t work. The address is needed to make sure that there would be enough parking in the immediate area for the cars that they issue permits for. As an extreme example – say next year, every house on Dalewood houses on average 5 students, each with their own car requiring a permit. And that same year no students with cars live on Sussex. What happens when the students living on Dalewood need to park their cars on the street?
Uh, no. You pay rent to the landlord. But you don’t pay the property tax on the house. And the landlord would still be paying taxes on the house even if you weren’t living there. The city receives nothing from you (directly).
Yes they are. Show me a city that isn’t. Parking fines are a cash cow for every city. They help fund the roads you drive and park on, the services you use at the permit office, and subsidize the HSR which students without cars, like I was, need to get around…
I know the sign you are talking about - it is preventing left turns into the Esso station from Main Street. I seem to remember that sign prohibiting turns in the PM. Maybe they’ve changed it.
I’m not trying to be mean. But I don’t think that you are being treated unfairly by the city in any way. “Ridiculous” parking regulations exist everywhere. At a house I lived at in Toronto, there was no parking on the street Monday to Friday between 10am and 6pm. Not a problem really as I drove to work. However, those restrictions were also in effect on holidays. So, on Thanksgiving Day for instance, I would have to move my car somewhere during the day because without fail, the parking police would saunter along at some point merrily issuing tickets.
And these things are by no means limited to Ontario. Shortly after graduation, I got a job in Montreal. I bought a car here in Ontario just before I left, got it inspected and had a 15 day license permit issued for it. Upon arriving in Quebec, I went to register the car and was told I would have to have it inspected first - even though I had the Ontario certificate that was issued less than 2 weeks before. That pissed me off…
Ever eat at the Tally-Ho? That was practically my second home while I was at McMaster. Mmmmm… Double Beef Basket with gravy on the fries…
Actually, my insurance does cover me out of Quebec, seeing as I’m a STUDENT. I also have medicare. I looked into this stuff before moving, and inform the SAAQ and the RAMQ and the insurance company whenever anything changes.
Still, it IS a waste of money to transfer the registration, just as its expensive to get a phone line. 55$ to install. We are moving, and transfering the line we have, and its still going to cost us 55$. When summer savings are dwindling, and you haven’t started a summer job yet, this stuff is expensive.
And I do understand the reasoning for the signs. We live closer to Mac than the Mac parking lot, and so students take advantage of this street. I understand THAT. I just wish that they would reconsider the transfer of registration requirement, because there are other ways to proove that I live here.
The address is on the lease, its the address on my cheques, my phone bills, my bank account, the school mails things to me here, etc. I can PROVE that I live here, and they refused to let me. And its not an issue of space to have that many cars, at least not on this street. And its not because they are busy, its just that they don’t want to accept anything other than registration as proof. You know what the lady on the phone told me? “you’re from Quebec anyways. We can’t track you down” As if I’m not going to pay when my car is right there, EVERY DAY!
I know I was parked longer than I should have been, and yeah, I do deserve that ticket, which is why I paid the fine. But its the lack of an option that bothers me. I don’t know anyone who would transfer their registration just for a parking permit, but its still a damn bitch to get up early and shuffle the cars around, and sometimes have to wake up your housemates to do it. I was ticketed at 9:30am. Thats only an hour and a half into the “one hour” timeframe. Its damn frustrating!
But then again, I’m moving in three weeks, where I get my OWN, reserved parking spot - I cant wait!
