I got a ticket for parking overnight on the street in Pasadena, Ca over the summer. I contested the ticket explaining that there were no street signs that notified me of this ordinance and I sent them pictures of where I parked and the cross streets showing there were no signs nearby saying I could not park there. Well I got a letter back from the City of Pasadena saying exactly this, "Pasadena municipal Code 10.44.010, prohibits overnight parking on City streets between the hours of 2:00am and 6:00am. Signs advising motorists/visitors are posted at freeway exits and at the entrance and major thoroughfares." ???!?!?! Is that logical? They expect me to see a sign on the freeway telling me that I can't park on their streets. I don't know about any of you but when I'm driving and visiting a city I'm looking at street signs and traffic lights, I'm not concerned with parking until I get to my destination.

I've been to various cities where you can't park on the street overnight, but they all have signs on the street every few feet telling you that you can't park on that particular street. This makes no sense, its like having the speed limit posted on the freeway for all residential streets. Any chance in fighting this? The fine isn't monumental, but I certainly do not feel like I deserve this ticket.

 

Tell them that you weren't on a freeway and that you came in on back roads, so there is no logical way that you could have viewed the signs, since you never did exit the freeway. Or something along those lines. You can fight anything and win as long as you have a good argument and can make a good point. You can definitely point out the difference between different cities and how they are marked clearly. You can say that it is not fair that you have to exit a freeway to be notified that you cannot park overnight on a city street. Just be like what if I never traveled on those freeway exits or thoroughfares? I wouldn't have seen those signs. Be like you have to state that you cannot park overnight there. I don't know if this make sense its 4:15 here and I am studying for my spanish final, so it will basically all be blabber.

 

That sucks. I know Beverly Hills is like that too

 

Like your Governor says.. I'll be back..... just go to the court and fight it.....

 

It's a parking ticket for God's sake, pay it and move on. If you want to fight it for the principle of it, than you have more time than I do.

 

........okay

 

LOL, and that’s why people of given tickets for "weird" reasons. To see if the chump is dumb enough to "just pay it".

This is bad advice, and if you wish to donate to his parking ticket fund I would bet he would be appreciative of it.

My .02 on it would be to make sure you can plot a "non major route" from point A to point B that would be LOGICAL. I personally would fight it and no, I dont have "tons" of time. But bending over seems more wrong.

I was going to get a parking ticket in a major city. You had to get a "temporary" parking pass prior to parking on the street. My buddy got me one in advance for his party. I hung it on the front window on the rearview mirror (at the back of the pass indicated).

I just happened to be walking past the window and notice that a police officer was writing tickets for the cars (not everyone obeyed the law at that point). I sat and watched as he went down the line and when he got to my car, he started writing a ticket. I casually walked out, walked up to him and asked if there was a problem with this car being parked here. He started to give a BS answer about needing a parking permit. So I pointed to the one hung in the window and he stammered over himself, saying he couldn’t see it and so forth. He mumbled some apology and moved on. I ran into the house and got a digi camera and proceeded to take pictures of the cars with the ticket and pass in plain view (some actually did have passes).

He came up to ask what I was doing and I said "seems as if these cars have been ticketed improperly as well, so I am taking evidence for them". He got angry and said I had no right. I said, that’s something I guess the courts will have to decide. As I suspected, he went down the line again...looked into the windows and then removed the correct ones.

Long story short is that either gov’t people are dense, or they pray on the law of averages that it will be "to hard" to fight, or people wont know how to fight.

Cliff: Cop writes bogus ticket, gets caught, gets mad, removes "wrong" tickets.

 

In your example, the ticket was clearly uncalled for since he had the required permit. This can easily be contested in court since you have the actual permit, plus records of it being purchased beforehand. In this case however, the parking ticket is valid since there is an ordinance on the books prohibiting overnight parking. The guy does not state whether he actually came off the interstate or if he took some other route. Either way, I bet the sign is present as your enter city limits. I don't agree with the parking ticket, yet the guy clearly violated the ordinance. Pay it, learn from it and move on.

Also, the guy is obviously from out of town so you are telling me it would be worth it for him to travel back to the municipal courthouse with a bunch of photographs and argue with either the prosecutor or judge about a parking ticket??? I've done this for a moving violation in which consequences equal more than just the fine, but a parking ticket? Come on now.

 

that's cool

 

A few years back, I got a $50 ticket in Chi-town in a street that required a "heighborhood sticker" before 9:00 AM (fascism). After letting the fine double, the city started sending threatening letters (for about a year), then some lawyer continued sending them. I ignored them all. My attitude was to make them spend more attempting to collect that the fine was worth.

As it turns out, the city likely sold my ticket to this ambulance chaser for pennies on the dollar and he lost out on me.

 

Doesn't that show up on your credit report as a collection account???

 

I haven't seen it come across; besides, my wife has already shot my credit record...

 

I don't know about you but I would just ignore it. I not sure how they do things where you live but unless its a traffic violation (speeding, running lights,etc) they won't take away your license. They should eventually forget about it.

 

just Pay it and learn a leason

 

... i get tickets all teh time in nyc... its a common thing for me... by my school some Ahole with a daycare center smashed the sidewalk and made his own ramp and drive way ramp. Im not a D*ck so i dont blokc the drive way.. btue the small pedestrian ram they got going... i block it all the time.. and end up gettting ticket 60-70 percent o time.... luckly the municipal building is about 3 blocks from my school.. so its become sort of routine to go down to the building show them pics of the sidewalk that reveals city clearly did not make it. (when city does it they put soem metal stuff aroudn it so it wont crumble and also if you are parked in front of metal part u can get ticket..) anyhow.. i show pic.. they void... and this happens every other week or so... its sorta annoying.. now i leave a note witht eh voided tickets on my dash when i put my car there... just to give the traffic cop a big ( F- YOU) ....

so i mean if u clearly have soem logical explination.. and make shure its not complicated... cause courts/munies. dont like complicated..

 

And what lesson would that be Mr. Im not a 5th-gen but I post here anyway? Pay more attention to road signs when traveling through cities instead of the death machines moving at 80 mph around me on crowded freeways.

 

Mmmmmkay, just like a lot of us 5th Genners post in the other Gens' forums and are very welcome to do so, the same applies to him in this forum. Please don't give the 5th Gen forum a bad name. Kthxbye.

 

I got a parking ticket from the City of Evanston once and tried to do the same thing.... only difference is that they sent the ticket back to Michigan (where my license and registration were) and had them chase me for it, so I broke down and paid up.

 

I don't believe I'm giving anything a bad name. But sorry if I did some how. The fact of the matter is that this out of towner is getting screwed by a system that is obviously designed in some way or another to get people not from that area. Which pisses me off due to the principle of the whole ordeal.

 

I agree, but you did not post that earlier.

Disagreeing with his point is one thing, but I thought that the additional jab was unnecessary.

What might give us a bad name was this:

 

And I apoligize for that, finals make me edgey.

 

Me too... caffeine doesn't help either...

 

yeah man that was really rude .Man if you were to come to any board I would not say that because no one owns any forum boards in here, you may post where you like. As long as it pertains to that forum.

 

As Puppetmaster said, we are free to post in any of the central forums as we see fit. Case in point, I posted in 4th Gen and 5th Gen when I owned a 3rd Gen.

Therefore, that statement was uncalled for.

 

Therefore, I apoligized. END

 

It is the same for Alhambra, which is the neighboring city to Pasadena (no parking from 2 am to 6 am)

Its hard to fight these types of tickets, I don't think you will win but I say keep trying. When I used to live in Alhambra, they gave me a parking ticket for blocking the street cleaning (even though there was no sign on the entire street). I contested the ticket, they put up a sign the next week and still told me I had to pay the ticket (no responses from the city to my letters).

Fighting the principal of the matter in this case may cost you some time, a lot of patience, and money (certificate of mailing, etc).

 

Bad advice. They won't forget about it, everything is computerized nowadays, so eventually they might stop sending you notices but then when you get pulled over for speeding and want to fight it, that old ticket will come up again probably. So just pay the ticket or fight it because the ticket keeps on adding up if you don't pay it on time. Never just forget about a ticket, there will almost always be a greater consequence than if you just paid it in the first place.

 

^^ Let me add, a VERY BAD advice to ignore it.

I got a ticket over a year ago on a broken meter, that I reported. Called them to let them know that the meter was broken and they said once they get the info on the meter they will take care of the ticket. It's now over a year (got it in Nov '04) and they're still _INVESTIGATING_, meanwhile they keep sending me tickets and once the car was even put on hold in the DMV. So take actions ASAP.

One way out - get some mechanic to issue a form that your car broke down and you couldn't move nor repair it, or something of that type.

 

make sure u pay it... dont listen to others who say dont pay it.... california is really an a$$ about it... they'll revoke ur license in the end... the fee doubles, triples and then they send it to the dmv....

its stupid with the street parking.. but its a city ordinance...

 

how the hell are they gonna revoke his license? The car might be registered to someone else, whose license are they going to revoke?

EDIT: From Pasadena DOT
"Q. Can I be arrested for my unpaid parking ticket?

A. No. Parking tickets are not criminal offenses in the State of California and you will not be arrested for your unpaid parking ticket. However, there is an additional $25 fine for tickets that are not paid on time and you may be subject to a $3 DMV fee if a hold is placed on the registration of your vehicle. If a hold is placed on the registration of your vehicle you will be unable to register your vehicle until all your outstanding parking tickets have been paid in full. In addition your delinquent unpaid parking tickets may be referred to an outside collection agency for collection proceedings against you."

You also need to contest it within 21 days or it'll be too late. More info found on their website:
http://www.ci.pasadena.ca.us/finance...ations/faq.asp

 

funny you mention that...I was on travel for work in Pasadena last month, and I actually saw those signs off the highway, and was thinking about how few people actually see them, probably....

 

Here in West Hartford, CT we have the same regulations about overnight parking. As an "upscale" suburban town the basis of the regulation is to make sure all cars in town have a parking space, I guess to keep down any "heaps" from building up on the street.

I've lived here nearly all of my life and to tell you the truth, I don't recall ever seeing a sign about it anywhere in town. I just know of it by "local knowledge". If you do need to park on the streets overnight due to something like driveway repairs you're expected to call it in and they'll let you park on the street.

Maybe it's just that I know it and never thought to look for signs but I'll have to keep my eyes open to see if there are any around town.

Also, while on a trip to New York City yesterday I heard an advertisement for parkingticket.com where they have supposedly retired cops and judges who will help dismiss your ticket. Don't know how it works. They say you pay them nothing unless your ticket is dropped or reduced. Don't know if they operate out in CA but if you give it a shot, let us know how it works out.

 

That's realy how they make $$$ of the people. They don't even want to post the signs anywhere near, cause they know they'll catch people do it and knowing that people who park there would not know about that.
That makes me mad just to think about how gready some people are.