Parking tickets

was the red box a pillar box?

that loading only box is for trucks and commercail vehicles only Mark. They are all over the place, yet our company still pays about 10k per year on parking fines.

So I (now) gather. Annoying though - I honestly had no idea, and have parked in them loads of times before. So I feel that much more aggrieved cos I had no idea I was committing an offence. Apart from driving without an MOT, but at least I didn't get done on that.

Imagine how our drivers feel when they can't get in the loading boxes because someone's parked in them and then they have to either: a)drive round the block til it's free or b) park illegally and risk getting a ticket which, if it's deemed they didn't actually try to avoid, pay for out of their wages......

i was talking to a woman the other day, a few years older than me, a good-looking if slightly hippie-ish artist type, who had been ARRESTED for parking tickets a few years ago while riding her bike in vancouver's downtown eastside. she ran a stop sign on her bike and when the cops checked her id through the system they found the unpaid parking ticket warrant and took her to the jail a few blocks away. she said it was pretty scary and full of things/events/people she thought she'd never see in real life.

I'm not trying to rile you Mark but surely there was a sign either on the red box or very close to it saying exactly what the box was for? If not, you could appeal against the fine.

I have had parking fines a couple of times and it makes you completely unreasonably angry, maybe because really you know it's your fault and you should have read the sign or paid for parking or whatever.

So the first night in our new urban place is a Sunday and (hooray!) no one is parked directly in front of our building! Mr. Jaq takes the space, we haul one last load of crap up stair mountain for the night. Monday morning - NO CAR. Towed, because the tiny tiny print on the sign says "Tow away zone from 6 - 9 am)". $140 impound fee, and a $38 parking ticket.

Another ticket this morning :(
While we were trudging stuff up the stairs.
At least it didn't get towed.

I did a similar thing once, parking in a spot that was no parking from 4 to 7 pm or something, fo rush hour traffic, and got towed. The worse part was I was already parked in a legal spot and I saw this spot maybe half a block closer to my destination, and moved my car. The original spot was on the same block (other side of the street) so I assumed the rules were the same.

And once I parked in a 2-hour spot and was late going back to feed the meter and saw I had a ticket, so I figured I didn't need to put money in now. So a couple hours after that I went back to leave and found a second ticket. Damn you Hermosa Beach!

I was ticketed for parking 15 inches away from the curb. Apparently this is a grave offense in Chicago. The night before the ticket, I parallel parked my small car between 2 SUVs. You can't exactly contest a ticket with the rationale that "parking between two sports utility vehicles is very hard for me." pity appreciated.

I probably racked up a good $1000 in parking tickets in the past 2 years (yes, paid). my work parking garage costs like $150/month so it's more economical to find a side street out of the way and just pay the occasional ticket, so about $60/month

I suffered through four hours in a car, three states, three airports, and two flights to get home from a stressy "vacation" in July and still had an hour drive ahead of me. The wife waited for the bags while I went to get the car, which I parked in the waiting / loading /unloading area in front of the airport. I figured I'd go in to tell her where I was, which was right outside of where she was standing.

Fifteen seconds later I was back at the car and some fucking shitty airport cop was just finishing writing me a ticket. He saw me standing by the car for five minutes before I went in to talk to my wife, even telling me to move my car back a couple feet to make more room. Despite this encounter and the fact that he saw me walk right by him into the airport ten seconds earlier he apparently had no idea whose car it was and due to security and terrorism or whatever he had to give me a ticket. Because it's illegal to park there. Even though there were two dozen other people all parked along the curb in front of the "no parking" signs.

In retrospect I'm kind of surprised I didn't get arrested after being a complete and total asshole to him about the whole thing - questioning his authority for being merely an airport cop, calling him on the arbitrariness on his enforcement of the rules, and coming pretty close to telling him that I hoped one of his loved ones suffered an incurable illness. I probably would have arrested me.

It was only 30 bucks. I called the city and asked if the explicit directions on the ticket against sending cash were to specifically prevent people like from sending a big sack of pennies, and they said that was pretty much the case.

Think of the postage on $30 in pennies!

The real reason is to prevent the minimum wage person opening the envelope from pocketing the cash and tossing the rest in the trash.

I'm not trying to rile you Mark but surely there was a sign either on the red box or very close to it saying exactly what the box was for? If not, you could appeal against the fine.

I have had parking fines a couple of times and it makes you completely unreasonably angry, maybe because really you know it's your fault and you should have read the sign or paid for parking or whatever.

Ned, there was indeed a sign, and in my naivety/dumbness I translated "loading" as "getting out of your car to pick something up, then getting back in it within 20 mins". I even looked it up online and sure enough, there are similar but different signs that offer free parking to any vehicle for 20 mins. I just never made the connection.

Your second sentence - no, it's the opposite, I honestly thought I was good which is why it's annoying. I got a ticket a few months ago when I went to meet some friends for lunch, intending to go to the footie afterwards, but because I was having such a good time I decided to stay on, forgetting I'd paid accordingly at the meter. When I remember, I ran to the car (35 mins overtime) and the inspector was there, having just put the ticket on my window. I was gutted but I was in the wrong so I wasn't even slightly angry. Indeed, the nice inspector dude told me if I was going back to my mates I should just leave the ticket on the car as then I wouldn't risk getting another one!

You're a better than me then.

Last time I got a ticket was in Oban - my daughter had been stung by a bee and I had to go to Boots to get some stuff because said daughter was all upset. I bought a ticket went to Boots with child, applied anti-sting lotion, all was well. Then i thought, I'll just go and have a coffee. Of course, by then time I'd had my coffee and cake I'd completely forgotten that I'd only got half an hour on the ticket machine. I was so pissed off at the £40 fine that I ranted in the main street and pointed at various cars parked on double yellow lines while that lazy fat occupants sat in the car too fucking lazy to walk one hundred yards from the car park, the lazy fat fucks and did they get a ticket, did they fuck, no they just stayed in the car, nipping out only to buy chips and fucking deep freid mars bars so they could stuff their fat fucking non-fine getting faces, it's because I'm English right, that's why you've picked on me isn't it...Arrrggghhhhhh....

And still the pain lingers...

I just saved £80 renewing my car insurance (More Th>n, fwiw), so I can claim my car expenditure of the week is £20 profit!

Think of the postage on $30 in pennies!

It would have been totally worth it.

I've had my car removed from a (UK) side-street, at the Police's request.

The car was parked legally (ie. not on yellow lines or in a permit area) and courteously (by which I mean, close to the kerb, not on the kerb and not blocking any driveways).

It transpires that a lorry could not get down the road and my car and another were removed.

However, the cost of removal is being charged to myself (£150.00, plus £20.00 per day if not collected within two days). The collection point is in another town and only during the hours 08:30-1700.

Any advice regarding appealing this?

(Googling the subject makes me wonder if I'll also be hit with a £30.00 fine).