Let me paint you a picture, as I so often like to do: you wake up, on the right side of the bed for once! The neighbors weren’t doing construction, the gardeners weren’t using their leaf blowers, and the rooster that lives next door must have slept in today because that infernal cock-a-doodle-doo-ing that has become the sound of your nightmares hasn’t started yet. You have your coffee or your tea or whatever morning drink you prefer and the first sip you take is the ideal temperature. Your morning routine isn’t rushed and you get everything you want done before you step out the door. Finally, it’s time to head out and the weather is perfect, you even have a spring in your step. You walk out to the street…and then you see it. That little white envelope, sticking out, almost mockingly, from under your windshield wiper. “No, no, no. Come on, please,” you beg as you quicken your stride…but despite your pleas, the envelope is just as you had feared: a parking ticket. Suddenly, an atomic bomb of bad vibes has been dropped on your day.
There are times I've knowingly parked someplace I shouldn't because I had to get to some appointment and there just wasn't any other option. Then it's like a non-lethal form of Russian Roulette. I spin the chamber and take my chances. Sometimes I win and feel like one of God's chosen. Other times, there's that little envelope and I try to accept the bullet with grace. But yes, there have been times when I have been wronged by the deep state. Or deep city. Once, in Pasadena, I came back to my car to see a ticket on it while, according to my app, I still had like, six minutes. I took a picture of the ticket, a picture of my app, wrote the kind of articulate and well-reasoned statement that only someone who'd gone to law school for three weeks could write, and sent it in, confident I'd be exonerated. I wasn't. Can't remember the bogus reason they gave me. Thought about appealing to the Supreme Court, but with the new conservative lineup I figured they'd take one look at my earring and toss the case, so I gave up. Just thinking about it raises my blood pressure.
Damn, Will! This is still a sore spot for me. I got so many tickets in Cambridge that by the time they towed my $700 Dodge just before graduation, I owed more than the car was worth and just threw up my hands and signed over the title to the city! Still feeling a lot of guilt—good thing I am not Catholic, would’ve eaten me up!
Years - make that decades - ago I got a parking ticket in a lot in Manhattan Beach because the meter ran out before I left a party to check on it. Since I thought double jeopardy (the law, not the game show) applied, I left the ticket under the wiper and went back into the party. When I finally left to go home...you guessed it, a second ticket next to the first. I hope you're happy, Manhattan Beach!
I'll never forget it. It was 5 minutes until the parking restriction expired. I was idling in the car, just in case, in front of my apartment. That's when the parking cop rolled up, wagged her finger at me, and told me to move. Couldn't believe it. After a brief back-and-forth, she just started talking over me until I got back in my car and drove off .... into a driveway 10 feet away and waited for a few seconds.
That probably made her day. It almost felt worse than a ticket.
Like you said, parking tickets are one of the more irksome features of urban life. Of course, they're designed to provoke such a negative response that you think twice before making the same mistake. But, I'd bet that most drivers have at least one incident where they thought they were in the clear, but they missed some clue less obvious than the bright yellow curb painting. I had such an experience on a visit to L.A., and it scarred me for weeks afterwards. All you can do is grit your teeth as you seal the envelope and bid farewell to your hard-earned cash.
There are times I've knowingly parked someplace I shouldn't because I had to get to some appointment and there just wasn't any other option. Then it's like a non-lethal form of Russian Roulette. I spin the chamber and take my chances. Sometimes I win and feel like one of God's chosen. Other times, there's that little envelope and I try to accept the bullet with grace. But yes, there have been times when I have been wronged by the deep state. Or deep city. Once, in Pasadena, I came back to my car to see a ticket on it while, according to my app, I still had like, six minutes. I took a picture of the ticket, a picture of my app, wrote the kind of articulate and well-reasoned statement that only someone who'd gone to law school for three weeks could write, and sent it in, confident I'd be exonerated. I wasn't. Can't remember the bogus reason they gave me. Thought about appealing to the Supreme Court, but with the new conservative lineup I figured they'd take one look at my earring and toss the case, so I gave up. Just thinking about it raises my blood pressure.
Sometimes I can be pretty chill about parking tickets, but last week I WAS NOT CHILL
Damn, Will! This is still a sore spot for me. I got so many tickets in Cambridge that by the time they towed my $700 Dodge just before graduation, I owed more than the car was worth and just threw up my hands and signed over the title to the city! Still feeling a lot of guilt—good thing I am not Catholic, would’ve eaten me up!
Years - make that decades - ago I got a parking ticket in a lot in Manhattan Beach because the meter ran out before I left a party to check on it. Since I thought double jeopardy (the law, not the game show) applied, I left the ticket under the wiper and went back into the party. When I finally left to go home...you guessed it, a second ticket next to the first. I hope you're happy, Manhattan Beach!
I'll never forget it. It was 5 minutes until the parking restriction expired. I was idling in the car, just in case, in front of my apartment. That's when the parking cop rolled up, wagged her finger at me, and told me to move. Couldn't believe it. After a brief back-and-forth, she just started talking over me until I got back in my car and drove off .... into a driveway 10 feet away and waited for a few seconds.
That probably made her day. It almost felt worse than a ticket.
No question, parking tickets suck. That said, parking meters do offer a unique opportunity to use the coins I seem to have no other outlet for.
Like you said, parking tickets are one of the more irksome features of urban life. Of course, they're designed to provoke such a negative response that you think twice before making the same mistake. But, I'd bet that most drivers have at least one incident where they thought they were in the clear, but they missed some clue less obvious than the bright yellow curb painting. I had such an experience on a visit to L.A., and it scarred me for weeks afterwards. All you can do is grit your teeth as you seal the envelope and bid farewell to your hard-earned cash.