Ever been screwed over by Parking Enforcement?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Just remembered another story: when I received my student loan checks in January, I looked down the list of deductions and noticed two for grossly-late parking tickets, about $40 each. Knowing that I had never parked illegally, I called up the Traffic & Parking Office and demanded an explanation, giving them the citation numbers that appeared on my check receipt. They asked, “Do you own a silver Nissan?”

Why no, I don’t, but now it all falls into place. In December, my Ford Ranger was sandwiched in an accident and was in the shop, so the offender’s insurance company paid for a rental car for me. Since the accident happened just before finals week, I got a temporary permit so that I could park the little rental car in my reserved spot. To get the temporary permit, I had to fill out a form with the rental car’s information.

The tickets were for parking in the commuter lot without a permit and were from September and October; evidently, some student(s) had used the same rental car before me, parked illegally, and never paid the tickets, since the car wouldn’t be connected to them. So, since I had bothered to REGISTER the car for a temporary permit, unlike my scuzzball student brethren, they handed the tickets over to me.

But, it ended well. I gave them the name of the rental car agency to confirm my story, and the Traffic & Parking folks sent me a check for my missing cash. I sincerely hope that the agency gave them the name of the student who deserved the tickets; gives me a feeling of smug satisfaction to imagine the jackass getting a big fat parking bill in the mail.

22

My mother once got a ticket for parking too long in a 2-hour zone, when she had been there for 15 minutes. She had picked the last spot in front of the hamburger shop where the cops like to hang out.

My brother also got one once where the cop had handwritten in the violation. It said, “Parking in a public place.” Funny, we didn’t know that was illegal…

23

Here at UMKC, we pay $150/hr to attend college. Apparently, the honor does not include parking. It’s another $80/semester for a parking pass, and that’s only good on non-metered lots. Did I mention 75% of the lots are metered?

The staff are allowed to park in our lots, but parking in theirs incurs a $35 fine. Park without paying in a metered lot? $20. Doesn’t matter how long you were there. Park in a pass lot without a pass? $40. Yes. Half the semester fee, for a single time parking. And no, if you go in and purchase a tag after that, they don’t waive the ticket.

Mother fuckers.

What caps this is that there are city streets all around the campus that are very wide, and mostly one way, so we could easily park on both sides of these streets and still have ample room to manuever the road itself, but UMKC has asked KCDOT to mark these streets No Parking so as to not take business away from the metered and permit lots.

Mother fuckers.

On top of everything else, the largest lot available (parks over 1000 cars, lot 32) was completely torn up to make way for a four level parking garage (permit garage, nonetheless) this semester. Couldn’t they have done this over the summer? No. Gotta do it during the semester.

Mother fuckers.

Finally, this revocation of about 1/5 of the parking space (and it’s the lot closest to the 3 largest lecture halls, even) has NOT led to the removal of No Parking signs, nor has it led to the waiving or lowering of parking fines. In fact, the cost of parking permits DOUBLED this semester, as did parking fines, even though 1/5 of the parking space is unusable!!! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU CCCCCCCCCCCCCCC KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK !!!

So I park at the Fraternity house, 1/2 mile away.

–Tim

24

OH! AND GET THIS! This guy who lived in the dorms last semester was out of town for two weeks, and accidentally left his truck parked in a metered lot. The lots are metered from 6am-10pm Mon-Fri, regardless if class is in session, the lot is full, whatever, it doesn’t matter. Gotta pay. So every hour between 6am-10pm Mon-Fri for two weeks, he got a $20 ticket put under his windshield wiper. I hope to GOD he took them to court over that and didn’t just pay up.

One time, I was sitting in the lot reading, without paying. The ticket writer was advancing down the line, writing everyone tickets. He started to write one up for me, even though I was sitting in my car reading! So I backed up and took off. Screw him.

Did I mention that the people who write the parking tickets get $1 per ticket that’s paid? Hmmm… wonder why they’re such assholes?

–Tim

25

I saw a job posting for a parking enforcement person for our city. You don’t have to be a cop. That explains things. But then who would want that job?

26

Opus said:

Opus, you need to read Dr. Gridlock in the Post. He insists that when you piss these people off they will come after you.

Now for my story, I attended the University of Maryland and finished classes in August one year, many moons ago. Sometime in November I had to go over there for some strange reason, maybe to pickup my cap and gown for the December graduation, I forget. I parked in a metered spot labeled visitor parking. I was not a registered student, I was a visitor. I also happened to have a still valid student parking sticker on my car. I got a ticket EVEN THOUGH THERE WAS PLENTY OF TIME ON THE METER. I had to pay the ticket (should have parked in the student lot since you had a student permit) or no diploma.

I also once parked in front of my dorm in a fire lane for 5 minutes while I ran into my room to get some stuff. Naturally, that was the 5 minutes that some a-hole pulled the fire alarm. I run back outside (I can hear the fire engines coming fast) to move my car out of the fire lane and there is a campus cop (not the regular parking enforcement people, but an actual cop) S-L-O-W-L-Y writing me a ticket. I tell him I’ll move it so the fire engines can get by (fire engines getting louder and louder). He looks at me and starts to write more slowly. Some guys tossing a football nearby start to harass the cop, saying ‘let him go, don’t be a jerk.’ The cop STOPS writing (fire enigines must be right around the corner by now, they are LOUD) and glares at the guy, then (thankfully) rips up the ticket. I jump in and pull off just as the fire engines turn the corner. Whew!

I have to reiterate, Opus. Please do NOT piss off the Parking Enforcement people in DC. They will never forget it.

27

My fault for the last one, although I still feel screwed over it.

November - Have car accident. Car totalled. Pregnant, and have to have ankle surgery because of the accident.

December - Get paid out for the car. Insurance company takes the (totalled) car. Wind up getting ordered bedrest for the duration of the pregnancy, including daily visits from nurses monitering me.

January - get parking ticket issued, dated for parking violation 2 weeks after I signed my car over to the insurance company. I’m still ordered to STRICT bedrest, for good reason. I phone, and they can’t help me over the phone, they can’t cross check their records with the police department, who have the records of the accident. They need me to send in my records, which I don’t have, the insurance company has. I phone my insurance company numerous times. They won’t even get back to me on it. Finally, the court date comes up, and I’ve JUST had the baby. The insurance company gets back to me with the relevant records showing that I was not the owner of the car at the time of the violation, the day AFTER it’s too late to fight.

I know, it’s not exactly them screwing me, but I sure felt screwed by circumstances. I wound up paying a (for me) hefty fine for a car that wasn’t drivable and I no longer owned.

28

I got a parking ticket this week. $20.00 Thing is, the court would have to pay for a sign interpreter [min two hours, $45.00 an hour plus miliage]. In other words, $90 or more for a $20.00 ticket. tsk

29

At LSU we called campus cops “ticket brownies”, and the Chem. E guys would doctor water balloons with butyl mercaptan (essence of skunk) and drive across campus pelting the worst offenders with them. Everyone considered this to be exceptionally lenient treatment. I had 5 parking tickets while I was there, and got all of them cancelled (eventually, the staff at the parking office just ducked and tossed me the “cancel” stamp when they saw me coming).

  1. We used the rear-view mirror tags. One day my mirror fell off the windshield (LA heat is bad for glue). It was lying on my dash with the tag plainly visible–and I got ticketed for not displaying my parking tag. A mild-tempered explanation at the office got it cancelled.

  2. Two days later, mirror still not reattached (I was busy). The tag is displayed in the lower left corner of my dash, plainly visible–the fine print on the tag specifically noted that this alternate position was acceptable. I got ticketed. The counter at the parking office acquired claw marks.

  3. Next semester. The tags were only good for one zone (about 1/5 of campus). I came back to find an out-of-zone ticket under my wiper. I was plainly in-zone. The girl at the office said that the brownie had been in the wrong lot–they had had to cancel ~20 erroneous out-of-zone tickets already that day. She very bravely (and foolishly) refused to give me the brownie’s home address, despite the fact that the steel “we’re closed” shutters were melting under my gaze.

  4. Next year. Parking lots have been replaced by new lecture halls; tag fees have gone up–law of supply and demand in action, eh? I couldn’t find a parking space on campus, so I parked in an adjacent non-campus lot–free public parking, but a long (1/2 mile) walk to my nearest class. I didn’t dig out my tag (it had fallen between the seats somewhere); I didn’t see the point–I wasn’t parked on campus. Several other vehicles were sporting their tags. I came back to find that all of the tagless cars (including those of several non-students) had been ticketed! I noticed that the signature was the same as the cretin in (3). The complaints from the non-students who got ticketed finally got him sacked.

  5. Final semester, during finals. Inexplicable–tag hanging from the mirror on a bright, sunny day. No tint. A “no tag” ticket fluttering in the breeze. I think it was the ticket brownie’s way of saying “goodbye”.

30

I keep forgetting about the good doctor. I checked out The Post online but didn’t find any of his columns related to the ticket nazis, so I sent him a long rant. Maybe I’ll get published?

Interesting follow up: Several of my neighbors have told me that a new ordinance went into effect two weeks ago in the three crowded areas I mentioned that allows parking all the way up to the crosswalk. That would put me in the clear if it turns out to be true, although I wonder why the hearing examiner didn’t tell me about this (no, I don’t really wonder; he probably works on commission too).

This morning I left for work at 7:00 and there were cars parked on every corner (totally outside of the legal parking space)- maybe 12 or 15 cars that I could see from a single vantage point. None of them had tickets. Maybe I just need to change cars so they think I’ve moved.

31

You could try something I do: cover your vin, with something when you park. The parking nazis have this habit of giving you a ticket, and then they try to put your vin on it also, but can’t. BUT, then the nice folks at the HQ, when they get the ticket with no vin, will look up your lic #, and then fill in the vin, based on that. Now, this is illegal as hell. The whole point of the vin is if you say it must have been a typo, they can see whether or not the vin matches. But if they are filling in the vin, based on your lic #, the vin always matches. So, if you had covered your vin, and they say the vin matches also, you can ask for a xerox copy of the ticket, where it will be clear they added the vin info later. This also works if you get a notice in the mail, but you know you never got the ticket- ask for a copy- they might well have backfilled the vin.

32

I haven’t gotten any tickets for a long time. (I’m so law abiding. :smiley: ) However, my son got two or three “parking” tickets. The first one he got was when he was parked in a parking lot talking to his friends, right under the “No parking” sign. The store was closed and there is no parking when the place is closed. The cop gives him the ticket, which was only $10. He brought it home and I looked at it. The ticket said it was a Geo Metro. He has a Suzuki Swift. The licence number on the ticket was also wrong, not even close. I told him to throw it away. He did. Never heard another word. The second was just a month or so ago. He recently moved to a city about 200 miles from here. He only had been in town 1 day. He went to visit a friend that lived in an apartment complex. He parked in a numbered spot. His car got towed. He had to pay $250.00 to get his car out of impound. Bare in mind that this was a brand new apartment complex. Only 4 of the 100 or more apartments had been rented. Only 4!!! He had parked in a spot for an UNRENTED apartment. The apartment number in the space was only 2 inches high. Hard to see even IF it had been light out. But it was at night and NO parking lot lights yet. Did he get out of paying? NO !!! Lousy jerkweed apartment managers.

33

I’m glad I found this thread because I got a parking ticket in DC on Friday afternoon and I think I’m going to contest it. Opus, sailor, & others with DC experience, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

At 3:30 I parked on the south side of Independence Avenue near the Air and Space Museum. The sign said “3 hour parking 9:30 AM-4 PM.” Now, I interpret a sign like that to mean: “After 4 PM you can still park here but the 3-hour limit is no longer in effect.” Is this incorrect? I have used that interpretation when parking on the street in dozens of cities from coast to coast and it has always worked. Lo and behold, I came back to my car at six to find a $50 ticket. Apparently you can’t park there during rush hour because they use the area as a travel lane. But shouldn’t they post a sign to that effect? On Constitution Avenue, they have the same signs that I saw on Independence, BUT right above each sign ther is another sign explicitly stating you can’t park there during rush hour. To me, that would omply that if there’s no sign saying not to park during rush hour, there is no such rule in effect.

So is it worthwhile to fight city hall?

malden

34

Inman Square?

35

malden: You might win, but you did interpret it wrong. It means parking till 4pm ONLY. Nothing against you at all, but when people park in the rush hour lanes around here, it makes me wish for a big old 70’s ghetto cruiser to drive around in and smash into their traffic blocking asses.

–Tim

36

Cheezit: it is simple- get the Apartment Buildings “address for service”, and you should write the manager, and explain in a nice way that you need that address, and you are going to sue in small claims court. And the OWNER of the complex will have to come in to fight it. And he will not be happy. And is he is not happy, the manager is not happy- more likely the manager is unemployed- ie sue the bastards. Same thing happened to me, and after i sent them a certified letter asking for their address of service, they sent me a check. Whenever you get towed from private property, it is the property owners responsibility.

malden: since the default is that it is OK to park anywhwere 24/7, unless they had other signage up (and they likely did), yes you can & should fight it. But check for other signage 1st.

37

I completely agree that parking enforcement is an ugly thing to be up against. The deck is stacked in favor of the city, and even honest mistakes are often hard to get unscrewed. It sucks.

That said, I have to admit that the Pasadena, California parking folks have been pretty good when I’ve had, ah, issues with them. I’ve gotten lots of tickets over the past 6-7 years (more than I can count), and all but three were legit. Perhaps some of the laws I broke were silly, but they were clearly posted and I broke them.

I successfully contested all three bogus ones. The “Initial Review” process here is via letter (prior to having to pay), and that is as far as I’ve had to go.

Two of them were really dumb; I was ticketed for doing something that was not illegal. The address and time info on the ticket was accurate, which made my case pretty strong when I sent in photos of the relevant signs accompanied by a polite letter. Both came back in my favor.

The third was a bit more iffy, and if they’d found against me I’d have simply chalked it up as payback for all those times I’ve violated 2-hour restrictions and not gotten caught. To wit:

Many streets (including one that’s mighty convenient parking for my school) in town have 2-hour time limits on them during the day. The usual way they enforce this around here is by driving by and marking rear tires with chalk (on the tread). They come back 2 hours+ later and ticket any vehicles with chalk on the tires. Simple, and usually fairly reliable. “False positives”, while not unheard of, are relatively rare. It’s also easy to defeat if you’re willing to check your car every few hours. :slight_smile:

This is what I think happened to me. One day they came by and marked, not my tire, but the mudflap right behind it. I moved before getting ticketed that day, but the chalk on the mudflap didn’t go away when I drove. A couple of days later, I parked down there again, came back after about 1.5 hours, and had a ticket. The only mark was on my mudflap, and the time (printed on the ticket) at which I’d been “marked” was before I showed up that day.

All I could do was send in a photograph of the chalked mudflap and state without being able to prove it that I hadn’t been parked there for 2 hours. I could very easily have been lying - it would have been pretty simple to wipe off the chalk from my tire, smear my mudflap, and make up my sad tale.

I wasn’t lying, though, and I was very happy when they believed me. The Initial Review went in my favor, and that ticket got dismissed, too.

What does this prove? Nothing, I guess, except that some municipalities can be reasonable about this. I also couldn’t help but note that all of the city employees I talked to (in person and on the phone) surprised me by be extremely friendly and helpful. Maybe Pasadena pays really well, I don’t know. Whatever. Just adding my experiences to the mix.

38

On the back of the info sheet they give you while you’re waiting for your turn in front of the examiner, it lists four or five reasons for contesting your citation. If none of them apply to you, then the implication is that you don’t even have a case and had better just get up and go home right now.

The one that would apply to you, malden, sez:

Everywhere in DC they need to post signs that identify which strets are ruch hour zones. The sign you saw allows parking from 9:30-4:00, but what about after that? There needs to be a sign that says “No Stopping, Standing or Parking 4:00-6:30” (rush hour). My argument would simply be that there is no sign posted that explicitly states that it is unlawful to park there after 4 p.m. That fact that the other sign implies this is not good enough for me. If they try to argue that 9:30-4:00 is the only legal parking time, then that means it’s a rush hour zone at 2:00 in the morning as well.

One more thing: check all the way up & down the block for other signs. I think they’re only required to post two signs- one at each corner, and if the block is vary large, you might not see the sign unless you walk to the corner.

I posted this in another thread, but it fits the bill here as well- a couple of paragraphs from a loooong article in the Washington Post, many moons ago:

39

No horror stories here (I ride a motorcycle and have never had a problem). But just wanted to share a bit of sympathy and one of my favorite bumper stickers –

Simple and to the point. Also have to respect the onions on the vehicle’s owner.

40

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I work in Roslyn (though sometimes spend a deal of time at DOE’s Forestall building across from the Castle) and live on Cap. Hill. My ride home takes me over the Memorial bridge and up Independence. Just got home, and in your honor I paid attention to the signs I passed on the ride home. Now, I am going to fight to be first in line to complain about the demonic signage of DC, but atop each ‘three hour parking’ sign was a ‘not at all between rush hour’ sign. Sure, it would have taken two or three hours just to read the entire sign (heh… I bet non-DC folk think I’m kidding. Just TRY to get on the Rock Creek Parkway someday in one go) but it was there in bold red lettering. So, just a friendly note to warn you that city hall might have a leg up on you on this one. Of course, city hall is constantly raising their leg on folks…
Take care,

Rhythmdvl