Would you be mad?

[DirtyComanche]

So, I got a parking ticket a couple days ago... At the airport in a certain crappy town in Northern Alberta... I let my meter expire, but got back within 5 minutes of it expiring. I was waiting to pick up some people, and I didn't really know when they'd be there. They showed up about 5 minutes before the meter was going to expire.

 

Apparently that's an $85 ticket! And the time on the ticket was exactly when it expired. So the by-law guy waited, or checked the time and came back right then. :fs1:

 

 

I was pretty mad about it. But a lot of people think I have no right since I was 'wrong' for not having placed another quarter in the meter. :dunno:

[sinkrun]

In my younger crazy days I may have went back with some good epoxy and made the quater STICK. :mad:

[Geonovast]

I agree that you should have gotten a ticket. If they go lenient on little amounts, it'll eventually spin out of control. But $85 is friggin ridiculous. I think $10 or $15 would be reasonable.

[Pete M]

I wouldn't doubt it if a lot of the modern meters could actually tell the meter maid when they are about to go.

Either way, $85 is pretty dang steep. :eek:

[mjeff87]

I jusst got hooked in downtown Richmond a couple weeks ago....parked in a 1 hour spot for a customer meeting I had to go to. Meeting ran a bit long and I came back out to a nice little ticket under my wiper blade....I was 17 friggin minutes over the hour mark. Pissed? yes, but technically I was guilty (they time-mark your tire with chalk as soon as you park, apparently)

 

Paid the fine begrudgingly.....but it was only $20, not $85 :ack:

 

Jeff

[ren]

I agree that the $85 ticket IS excessive, but well, you are ealing with a high traffic area, I would say. Hopefully, the clerks' office can help on the fine being lowered? Yeah, I know about the "time" marks, too. I have ACTUALLY had one of the meterwhores mark my tire before I even shut the engine off. I looked at her long enough to get her name and badge number then told her "Wrong. THIS one isn't staying." I then went on down the block to another spot, and helped my wife out of the truck so that she could go to work. A parked vehicle is one thing, but another thing when the vehicle has literarally just pulled in to the spot, and the driver HAS NOT EVEN HAD A CHANCE TO GET OUT. Freakin' change jockeys. Piss on 'em. Oh, and calling the "station" is no help either, as the response was pretty much " you pulled into the spot, therefore you were parked." Never mind that I hadn't even had a chance to shut down the engine, let alone get out to feed the meter. IF I had gotten the chance, then yes, I would have fed the meter so don't even start the "Boo-hoo, you were going to break the law" crap. But instead I went farther down the street, for the "more direct" exit from the truck, instead of walking with my wife.

[jtdesigns]

You guys pay to park...lol thats funny... We just pull off into the grass around here....

 

What would happen if you rubbed the lil chalk mark off your tire after the chalker was out of sight?????

[aemsee]

Don't know what you guys are crying about. They are only there to serve and protect! :rotf: Society would go in the crapper if parking was not strictly enforced!

[DirtyComanche]

I wouldn't doubt it if a lot of the modern meters could actually tell the meter maid when they are about to go.

Either way, $85 is pretty dang steep. :eek:

 

 

Well, I'm sure they could afford the best meter technology available given the amount of $85 fines they hand out. Or the $500 fine they give if somebody parks in the handicapped spot without a valid decal for it (it's one of the other check boxes on the ticket, I went :ack: ).

[Eagle]

Well, I'm sure they could afford the best meter technology available given the amount of $85 fines they hand out. Or the $500 fine they give if somebody parks in the handicapped spot without a valid decal for it (it's one of the other check boxes on the ticket, I went :ack: ).

I don't have any problem with a $500 fine for parking in a handicapped space when you're not handicapped. I think $1,000 is not unreasonable.

 

Remember, we (most of us, anyway) are the class of citizens known as the "temporarily able-bodied." You never know when an accident might put you behind one of those handicapped decals. At that time, you would curse the healthy, ego-invested clowns who think they have a "right" to park in handicapped spaces.

[Geonovast]

I think what ticks me off more than people parking in those spots is the bastards who are driving a car with disabled plates, who obviously aren't disabled.

 

I must admit, though, it has been nice being able to park in the Pregnant Mothers spots when we're out and about.

[DirtyComanche]

Well, I'm sure they could afford the best meter technology available given the amount of $85 fines they hand out. Or the $500 fine they give if somebody parks in the handicapped spot without a valid decal for it (it's one of the other check boxes on the ticket, I went :ack: ).

I don't have any problem with a $500 fine for parking in a handicapped space when you're not handicapped. I think $1,000 is not unreasonable.

 

Remember, we (most of us, anyway) are the class of citizens known as the "temporarily able-bodied." You never know when an accident might put you behind one of those handicapped decals. At that time, you would curse the healthy, ego-invested clowns who think they have a "right" to park in handicapped spaces.

 

 

Yes, I agree, I don't like seeing people who don't need the handicapped spots using them. However, like Geonovast says, there is a lot of abuse of that particular part of the system. Hell, here you can get a permit for simply being TOO FAT. Screw 'em, make 'em park in the back 40 and they can walk those excess calories off. Anyways, that's beside my point.

 

I think that a $500 fine is unwarranted if there is nothing stating that that is the consequence (besides had I looked up the local by-laws in the regional district office), or it is not universally so. I had no idea that I would be faced with an $85 fine for letting my meter expire, I probably would have been absolutely anal about throwing more change in it had I known, typically such a fine would be $20 at most with a reduction for early payment (the last ticket I payed was $10 after reduction for being early).

[Geonovast]

There are some places in the US that give out the disable window hangers if you have difficulty operating a cell phone.

 

Yet my neighbor, who has an inoperable foot, can't read, has a plate in her head, and is likely to die from Lupis in the next 20 years, has been fighting for a disability settlement for nearly 23 years.

 

Sometimes, I really hate this country.

[whowey]

There are some places in the US that give out the disable window hangers if you have difficulty operating a cell phone.

 

Yet my neighbor, who has an inoperable foot, can't read, has a plate in her head, and is likely to die from Lupis in the next 20 years, has been fighting for a disability settlement for nearly 23 years.

 

Sometimes, I really hate this country.

 

A couple of buddies and I went to the movies last evening.. Both of them are handicapped. One has only one leg and the other has a couple of circulation disorders that make it very hard for him to walk very far. There is a wrangler on about 6 or 7 inches of lift with 40 inch tires parked in the van accessible handicapped spot sporting a windshield hanger handicap tag. There is no possible way an honestly handicapped person could have managed climbing into this cheerleader-mobile. We ended up parking about halfway down the row and unloading the guy in the wheelchair out in the middle of the drive and I parked the van.

 

When we came out, I just pulled the van cross-ways in the parking lot and helped my buddy get his chair onto the lift. Blocked the traffic out of the theatre parking lot for 4 or 5 minutes while we got everything together.