Has receiving a parking fine ever made you bitter or caused you to avoid an area?

[Liberal_in_LA]

Cities spike parking fines to boost revenue

Some municipalities that have raised parking fines this year:

Santa Monica, Calif.
Old fine/ $40
New fine/ $50

Yonkers, N.Y.
Old fine/ $40
New fine/ $50

Berkeley, Calif.
Old fine/ $35
New fine/ $40

Newark
Old fine/ $25
New fine/ $45

Andover, Mass.
Old fine/ $15
New fine/ $20

Justin McNaull, AAA director of state relations, says fines provide a real temptation for enthusiastic enforcement, because they have the added benefit of producing revenue for governments. However, he says there are risks associated with it.

"For tourists, strict parking enforcement probably won't keep them away, so much as it will leave them embittered when they receive a ticket if parking regulations were poorly displayed or a meter was enforced with little or no buffer or if a fine was exceedingly high," McNaull says. "For suburbanites, parking tickets might dissuade some of them from going to certain neighborhoods if they fear overzealous parking enforcement officers."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-07-21-parkingfines_N.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno

[mike_c]

1. how about a $265 parking fine for parking a couple of feet into a bus stop...

...where the curb marking was worn so badly you could barely see it, and I parked DIRECTLY under the sign that said "Two hour parking?" I appealed, but the rat bastards denied it. I WAS a couple of feet into the red curb-- you just couldn't see the red paint unless you looked real hard, and my passenger could not open her door all the way without hitting the "Two hour parking" sign.

I paid it. :grr:

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. My condolences. That's a tough one.

[mwooldri]

5. I think my dad got in trouble for something similar...

you're not supposed to park in the bus stop, but it was a Sunday, and buses don't run in this particular rural area on a Sunday. Yet, I remember him getting something in the mail about it for parking in a bus stop on a Sunday for about half an hour. I think someone had a grudge against him for some reason... though in another village the nearby homeowners do park in the bus stop after the buses have stopped running for the evening, and leave before they start up - and all day Sunday - and it's always the same vehicles, no trouble from the police...

Mark.

[pitohui]

3. exactly it stops suburbanites from being invested in/visiting their city

it's a major reason i don't do much in new orleans where i live and why my entertainment dollar is generally spent in vegas or other cities where i don't drive

it has prob. cost the nola restaurant/tourism industry thousands of dollars if not tens of thousands of dollars, just from me, in the decades i have lived here

multiply that by everyone else who won't go downtown (virtually everyone in the burbs)

plus i don't care about/don't be as supportive as i could be of the city because...let's face it...they made it clear long ago that local folks from louisiana are not welcome...only tourists from out of state who fly/take cabs are welcome, folks who are "from here" are automatically considered to not have money and to be worthless scumbags

so bitter much? no fucking kidding

i was taught in high school that there are people living w.in ten miles of new orleans who have, literally, never seen the french quarter, and why? b ecause there is no fucking place to park -- if anything the situation is worse today

i can literally never visit the inner city/french quarter w./out making arrangements to stay at someone's house since i'm not rich enough to be able to afford a hotel room every time i go out to a fucking restaurant

that's how they kill local interest and care in a city, that's how they disinvest the 'burb dwellers from donating/contributing -- by harsh enforcement of parking bullshit and excessive punishment for DUI for low levels of drinking

an exception, i support and donate to the zoo, because they have free parking/easy access and make it welcome to ALL -- not just out of staters but they invest in getting louisiana people to visit too -- they have a whole different attitude, they don't automatically assume you're shit because you live here

[KamaAina]

8. As a transit-dependent person, I had never considered that

but come to think of it, it happens here, too. Both visitors and kama'aina (local people; now you know) tend to treat the Ala Wai Canal that separates Waikiki from the rest of the island as though it were filled with hungry alligators. Locals also often avoid the University of Hawai'i campus, with its many cultural events (not always easy to find here0, because of inadequate parking.

[Chemisse]

4. I once got towed during a Grateful Dead concert

after parking on an unmarked roadside. We walked miles that night looking for the car, then the police station, then the tow company, and paid a shockingly huge towing fee.

I am still pissed about it and will never return to that venue; and this was nearly 20 years ago.

[ohheckyeah]

6. I've never gotten a parking fine. n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. gasp! You haven't lived until you walk towards you car and see an envelope under the wipers,

:crazy:

[onehandle]

9. No. I'm an adult. nt

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

10. Yes. The whole of London. n/t

[noamnety]

11. Only once

I was with my grandma and we were returning to the car after a day at the beach. We had about 2 minutes left on the meter, and the meter person was writing us a ticket. My grandmother complained because it hadn't run out yet - the person writing the ticket had already started writing it - and wouldn't stop! She just shrugged and said it was practically out of time. There was no way to prove the time was still on the meter.

That was my first realization of how our law enforcement system works and how little rights we really have.

[ConcernedCanuk]

12. Other

.
.
.

My "fine" was being told to get my clothes back on when I was "parked" on a back road with a girl who said "yes"! back in the 70's

Never got a second chance

DAMM that cop!

:silly:

[taterguy]

13. Most people would rather go to places where parking is free and easy

Some of my favorite establishments have closed because they didn't have convenient parking

[Vinca]

14. I've always deserved it, but I've been known to weasel out of them.

[theHandpuppet]

15. I once got a ticket for blocking an "invisible sidewalk"

No, I'm NOT kidding. Years ago when I was living in Norfolk, VA I rec'd a parking ticket for blocking a sidewalk. Since there WAS NO sidewalk outside my home at the time (I lived next to a small park and had been using the same parking spot for years) I thought the ticket just had to be a joke. I spotted the cop a few blocks down the street, scribbling more tickets, and with said violation in hand asked her what this infraction was supposed to be about, She stated there was a law in Norfolk against blocking "invisible sidewalks". When I asked her how you would know if you were blocking an invisible sidewalk, she replied, in all seriousness, "You have to imagine it in your mind". Well, you can imagine I wasn't going to take this shit just because she was wearing a badge. I took the ticket directly to the D.A.'s office and he immediately dismissed the ticket.

That wasn't the end of it, though. In order to have the ticket cancelled, I had to take the ticket down to the office where parking violation fees are paid. The D.A. had called them before I came down so they were nervously waiting for me. One sympathetic lady who worked there whispered that this particular cop was nasty and they expected trouble. Sure enough, she had followed me to the ticket office and stood over me, pressed into my shoulder and glowered, arms folded, the whole time I was there. The folks at the ticket office rushed through the cancellation of my ticket and I could tell they were nervous both for me and for them. For weeks after that I was afraid I'd come out to my car in the morning only to find it trashed.

That was only the second ticket I've gotten in over 35 years of driving. I rec'd the other one in Cincinnati for going 36 in a 35 MPH zone at 6 a.m. in the morning -- and going downhill at the time. The cop actually stopped me by stepping out into the street in front of my car and waving his arms!! That sucker was lucky he didn't get killed. I didn't bother to fight that one because it would have meant taking time off from work and losing more in pay than it cost to pay the damn ticket.