A couple weeks ago I got a parking ticket in New York City. I live in New Jersey, which is where my car is registered. We were in the city for the day down by the South Street Seaport, and parking was limited.
I turned onto Peck Slip, which is a wide cobblestone street which has, every time I’ve been down there, a row of cars parked down the center of the cobblestone area. There are easily two lanes-width on each side of the row of cars down the center- plenty of room for a couple of cars to pass on each side. From what I can tell, there are no signs indicating it’s unlawful to park down the center. A car was just pulling out of the row, and that was the only open slot in the row. So I parked there. Returning a few hours later, I had a ticket. Only one other car in the row had one. The infraction is hand-written on the ticket as “Traffic Lane”.
Grumbling, I just went online to pay it and I see that my license plate number was entered wrong. On the plate, there’s an ‘S’ next to a ‘5’, and the ticket carbon copy makes it look like two '5’s, so that’s how it was entered into the city’s computer.
If I was trying to get away with something and got caught, I’d pay it. But I honestly thought it was a legitimate parking spot, and no signs were able to indicate otherwise. Plus, the ticket mis-identifies my plate. It’s only (!) $55, so it’s not the money, it’s the principle.
Did I luck out? If I don’t pay it, will they be able to track me down? Under these circumstances, would you pay the ticket?
If there are honestly no signs saying you can’t park there, you shouldn’t have to pay it anyway. If there are signs and you just missed them, then you should pay the ticket.
What about the guy whose tag number is taking the hit for it?
Is that worth $55 to you?
And I guess I’m not getting the picture here, but are you saying that because there are no signs you should be able to park in the middle of the street? I can’t figure out how that works. But like I said, maybe I’m just not getting the picture because I can’t imagine anyone doing that where I live.
The “no signs” doesn’t cut it – there are no signs in lots of areas where it’s obvious people shouldn’t be parking – but the fact that other cars were parked there and only one other car got a ticket makes me think that you got the ticket because of your out-of-state plate. I wouldn’t pay it.
But I wouldn’t trust that a screwed-up plate number will get you off the hook. There might be other ways they can find you.
