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jack
Joined: 23 Mar 2004
Posts: 4400
Location: 19th & Lamont
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 Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:21 pm Post subject: Another bogus parking ticket |
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| Parking on a crosswalk is a $50 offense. Fair enough, I suppose, if someone is really blocking the crosswalk. But our current Parking Enforcement aide (the same one who cannot comprehend the 25/40 foot law) considers the least intrusion into a crosswalk to be "obstructing" the crosswalk. Check out the photo below; does the owner of this Honda deserve a $50 ticket? I think not. (And I don't know who the owner is, but I'll try to help him fight this ticket.) -- Jack |
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zrathore
Joined: 25 Aug 2004
Posts: 243
Location: Wash, DC
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| Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Is your assumption that the car in question got a ticket because of what was stuffed in the door handle? If so, it seems that the entire area was tagged with brochures by yoga-extremists...so it might not actually be a ticket. This theory could be bunk, if you saw a ticket on the windshield... |
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jack
Joined: 23 Mar 2004
Posts: 4400
Location: 19th & Lamont
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| Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:02 am Post subject: ticket |
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| zrathore wrote: | | Is your assumption that the car in question got a ticket because of what was stuffed in the door handle? If so, it seems that the entire area was tagged with brochures by yoga-extremists...so it might not actually be a ticket. This theory could be bunk, if you saw a ticket on the windshield... |
No, the ticket's for real. We've got a new Parking Enforcement aide who's bent on writing as many tickets as possible, for the slightest "offense".
-- Jack |
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jack
Joined: 23 Mar 2004
Posts: 4400
Location: 19th & Lamont
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| Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 10:10 am Post subject: Bogus crosswalk-obstruction ticket |
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Reply from Wm Howland, Director of DPW:
"Thanks for the picture. I will forward to her supervisor and we will address this with her. Can you tell me the approximate time the ticket was issued or the tag number of the vehicle? I will ask the supervisor to void it out.
"DPW has been experimenting with cameras on the handheld computers as a way of documenting the infraction. I want to go with them because it will keep both sides honest." |
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New Neighbor
Joined: 25 Mar 2004
Posts: 218
Location: Brown Street
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jack
Joined: 23 Mar 2004
Posts: 4400
Location: 19th & Lamont
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| Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 12:42 pm Post subject: Another dumb ticket |
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Having become paranoid about bogus parking tickets, I'm checking those I find on the street these days. On 19th Street, above Park Road, there was a car with an RPP violation ticket. But the car had a perfectly good Ward One RPP sticker! What's the deal? Turns out that the car behind this one had a "no RPP" sticker, and no ticket . . . evidently the Parking Enforcement aide got confused and ticketed the wrong car. Yes, I checked the tag numbers on the ticket versus the cars. He/she ticketed the wrong car!
-- Jack |
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Tina
Joined: 07 Apr 2004
Posts: 179
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| Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:06 pm Post subject: |
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| That's irritating. Same ticketer? Or do we have a bunch of overzealous and confused Parking Enforcement aides assigned to our neighborhood? Seriously, when they can't do their job correctly, it's a lot of unwarranted hassle for us, and, if it takes 6 months to void out bad tickets, more often than not, DC benefits from these mistakes. |
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jack
Joined: 23 Mar 2004
Posts: 4400
Location: 19th & Lamont
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| Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 5:54 pm Post subject: Bogus tickets |
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| Tina wrote: | | That's irritating. Same ticketer? Or do we have a bunch of overzealous and confused Parking Enforcement aides assigned to our neighborhood? Seriously, when they can't do their job correctly, it's a lot of unwarranted hassle for us, and, if it takes 6 months to void out bad tickets, more often than not, DC benefits from these mistakes. |
This was a different Parking Enforcement person. Separately, Joe Keyerleber complained that bogus warnings were being passed out in Columbia Heights, around the DC-USA development where even a Ward One RPP pass won't allow you to park. The PE folks don't understand that this odd regulation pertains to one side of the street only, and were ticketing cars legally parked on the side of the street on which Ward One passes were sufficient.
The PE aide I spoke to last week (twice) was entirely incapable of understanding the 25/40 foot law, and didn't understand why there was a "no parking" sign posted 40 feet from an intersection. All she knew was that the sign said no parking, the car was past the sign, and that was that.
One begins to suspect that we're asking too little of the people applying for Parking Enforcement jobs. They've got to understand the laws that they're supposed to be enforcing, and it seems that a number of them cannot. Yes, this costs all of us time, trouble, and money.
-- Jack |
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jack
Joined: 23 Mar 2004
Posts: 4400
Location: 19th & Lamont
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| Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:24 pm Post subject: And another bogus parking ticket |
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| The Director of DPW, Bill Howland, assured me that "we will address this with her" -- that is, that stupid ticket for the insignificant intrusion into a crosswalk. Unfortunately, this word has not yet reached this dreadful Parking Enforcement aide. Today, another ticket, same place, similar circumstances. -- Jack |
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Dwight
Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 310
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| Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:30 pm Post subject: |
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Is that a legal spot? Looks like it is within an intersection (albeit a T intersection).
-- Dwight |
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jack
Joined: 23 Mar 2004
Posts: 4400
Location: 19th & Lamont
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| Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:27 pm Post subject: Parking |
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| Dwight wrote: | Is that a legal spot? Looks like it is within an intersection (albeit a T intersection).
-- Dwight |
It's posted as legal parking, which is as it should be, since cars parked there are no obstacles to traffic. You'll find a similar situation where Hobart ends at Irving. -- Jack |
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Nickel
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 103
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| Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:43 pm Post subject: |
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| aren't they an obstacle to pedestrians trying to cross the street though? A car coming down the street will find it difficult to see anyone crossing until they are in the street because the car is so close to the crosswalk. |
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jack
Joined: 23 Mar 2004
Posts: 4400
Location: 19th & Lamont
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| Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 4:06 pm Post subject: Parking and crosswalks |
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| Nickel wrote: | | aren't they an obstacle to pedestrians trying to cross the street though? A car coming down the street will find it difficult to see anyone crossing until they are in the street because the car is so close to the crosswalk. |
But the cars "in" the intersection are beyond the crosswalk. It's the ones preceding the crosswalk that might obscure vision, not the ones past the crosswalk.
Personally, I like having a parked car providing me with protection while I await a chance to cross. And I don't step out in front of an oncoming car on the assumption that the driver will stop for me in the crosswalk. The pedestrian has the legal right of way, for sure, but that just gives your survivors solid grounds for suit.
-- Jack |
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Dwight
Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 310
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| Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 5:25 pm Post subject: |
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| How does the 15' rule work in intersections such as this? Do cars have to be 15' from the crosswalk even if it is a T intersection? I believe part of the 15' rule is to give pedestrians a clear view of traffic before stepping off the curb. |
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Tina
Joined: 07 Apr 2004
Posts: 179
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| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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I think I met our exacting parking enforcement aide this morning. I was parking my car in a place where we've frequently parked it, just off an intersection near Bancroft, and kept hearing beeps from a parking enforcement car across the intersection. I assumed the beeps were for someone else because I wasn't doing anything wrong, and my spot was legal. She kept beeping, though, and eventually pulled up behind me and motioned impatiently for me to move the car. I went over to ask what the problem was, and she asked me, with some pique, "Do you see a white line behind your tire?" I looked, saw the crosswalk line about 6 inches back from my bumper, and asked, with genuine confusion, "Yes? Is there a problem?" She then peered out of her window and said, "Oh, from across the street it looked like you were over it."
I wonder if she would have given me that second look before writing a ticket if I hadn't been there... |
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