I saw the title of this thread (relating to parking tickets) and immediately thought of Philly before I even clicked on it. We were at the Mutter Museum last Spring Break and got a ticket. I had accidentally pout the receipt upside down on my dashboard (BTW, it was SNOWING and we were freezing and rushing trying to get inside. I sent the receipt/permit I had purchased to the parking authority to contest the ticket, but was denied. Later I read that Philly is notorious for ticketing.
In contrast, in San Francisco, someone can double park with their hazards on for hours and totally block the lane with no ticket.
I was visiting a customer downtown and their tiny parking lot was full, so I parked across the street in another building’s large lot that was 90% empty. Now I’m always worried about people dinging my doors, so I parked way out in an end spot that was the type with an extra marked off buffer zone on one side with my wheels just over the line.
Came back later and had a parking ticket for parking in an illegal zone b/c my wheels were over the line in this huge deserted parking lot. I was ticked off because since when do police write tickets for parking lots and since when do they care if you’re using a bit of that buffer zone. Turned out it was a city building and the cops are notorious for the tiniest infractions there.
H got a ticket once in San Francisco for parking with his wheels turned the wrong way. Funny thing is he had had them the right way (toward the curb and against the slope), but someone convinced him to turn them the other way.
Once I got a parking ticket for an expired meter. The thing was I know when I parked the car, how much money I put in the meter and how long it was supposed to last. I wrote a letter contesting, explaining when I arrived and how long the meter was supposed to last based on how much I had paid the meter. The judge dismissed the case and I didn’t have to pay the expired meter ticket.
College music audition in Denver - DH and son parked a rental car in the lot the music professor told them to park & came back to a ticket. No payment methods, but apparently they needed a sticker to park there. Thanks, professor. Had to pay it - rental car company would have charged us for it anyway.
I got a parking ticket for parking in a lot I was instructed to park in for jury duty. If they do that for every juror every day, they must make a killing. I contested it and never heard another word.
I parked on a street in downtown Minneapolis when I was young and came back to find a ticket. Apparently under the snowdrift there was a yellow curb so no parking - no signs…it was before cell phones so I called the local parking police from a nearby phone booth and told them I was going to be in my car and would until they came to see that I could not know it was a yellow curb. Fortunately they did come within about a 1/2 hour and voided the ticket.
We got a ticket parking in New Haven a few years ago. The meter had a 2 hour limit, so we put in enough money for 2 hours, then came back to the meter and added more money before the meter ran out, and went away to finish what we were doing, thinking we were okay.
We came back to find a parking ticket-- the violation was exceeding the 2 hour limit. Apparently one could not park there for more than 2 hours, regardless of putting more money in the meter. We had never seen that before.
In Brooklyn, my 86 year old father who uses a walker frequently takes car service to get places. One day, the driver left the car double parked to walk my father to the door of his doctor’s office. This very nice gesture got the driver a parking ticket.
I almost got a ticket when I took the wrong exit on a local highway. I had pulled into a metered space and got out my map (pre-GPS days) to figure out how to get back on the highway. A local cop said I had to feed the meter. I said, I wasn’t really parking, just trying to figure out how to get back on the highway, maybe he could just tell me. He said he didn’t know either. I couldn’t believe he didn’t know! Reluctantly I fed the meter. So stupid.
@Bromfield2 I’ve had that happen to me, but they still made me pay.
In the 80s, I was on stopped at a light on Marlborough St at Mass Ave. A car pulled into a metered spot with a meter maid right there. She had him ticketed before he could get out of the car to put his quarter in. All before my light turned green.
(second hand). A guy had a heart attack in his car on Newbury St. The police and ambulance attended. A crowd had gathered. A meter maid started writing up the car of the victim. The police officer argued with her and then arrested her to a cheering crowd.
My husband got a huge ticket cause he forgot to hang his handicap placard. He was in a hurry to get to the toilet. He called and explained and they waived it - not sure how much was him providing the placard number and how much was they didn’t want to hear any more details (he overshares sometimes)
Decades ago got a parking ticket for street parking while interviewing for a residency at Northwestern in Chicago. The physician interviewer said to ignore it, which I did. Could have gone there (second year invite) but went elsewhere. Many cars, license plates and addresses later they haven’t found me. I once heard they had many thousands of outstanding fines.
One other memorable parking ticket. Apparently I parked too close to the intersection one day in front of my small apartment building and was ticketed. Was a medical student and funds were tight so paying it was significant. Why I remember it is later during an extremely snowy winter I parked in the city lot nearby (had the paid permit) and came home to a police car parked in the same spot they had ticketed me for. Irritating to see that. High snowbanks. The police were there because the little old lady manager had called them because MY apartment had been broken into. At first she thought nothing of it but they carried out some possessions- plus she couldn’t give their license plate because she couldn’t see over the snowbanks. Never caught them. Parents insurance covered losses. Old B&W TV acquired when my grandfather dies, my 8 track stereo record player with the Star Wars album and the hand crocheted throw my mother made (didn’t like the colors) was used to wrap things. They left my piggy bank with change in it. Those were my only valuables- thieves didn’t get much because I had so little.
Now, about moving violations. Have been able talk my way out of a couple. New car with only a few hundred miles (going from home to there mainly), hill, accelerated too much in a small college town, older than the college kids. Rolling stop near home (it was a bad day, sort of stopped and made the right turn) where the officer looked me up and didn’t even give me a warning as I had no prior records in their system. Now I make sure I stop. H got a ticket for that decades ago in a different city/state. The speeding ticket I got was a dark nigh returning home to Wisconsin somewhere on the interstate in Pennsylvania. My battery or something was dying and dash lights weren’t working. Kept pushing to get home. In that era generally east coast drivers went faster than in WI, but not in the middle of nowhere in PA then. Oh, and a red light camera got me as I turned left when the light was still yellow once. LONG times between lights.
There, that’s it for a goody two shoes. Must admit I’m a left lane driver- go with the flow, especially around Chicago.
D and I went shopping one day up in Northampton Mass. I got a 2 hour spot and was soooo careful to get back to my car in time to pay for another 2 hours. When I got to the car, about 5 minutes before the first 2 hours expired…there was already a ticket on it! Grrrr… I had put the parking receipt face down on my dashboard. I’m pretty sure I just paid the darn thing.
A couple of years ago, when we had real meters here, I took my son to a music lesson on a busy street and parked at a meter - one of the two-sided ones that’s in front of one car and behind the other. It was behind my car and I got out of the car and walked in front to get to the sidewalk with the money in my hand. As I was walking around the car, the traffic agent came literally running from behind the car to ticket me before I could even get to the meter. I flipped out on him and he walked away, but this was definitely a thing in that location.
We parked in a lot at a tourist spot this summer, one where you have to walk to the pay station to pay for your parking. We and others assumed incorrectly that you would get a ticket to put on your dash. No, the process now is to type in your tag number and pay for the amount of time you want. So there was a parade of tourists walking to the machine, realizing you couldn’t complete the transaction without your tag number, and walking back to the rental car to get the number. Seems like there used to be something on the key/fob ring with the rental car info on it, but not any more. Aarrggh.
We’re seeing more of those meters, but haven’t trained ourselves to look at the tags before walking to the pay station.
