Sign up for our newsletters    

Sign up for our newsletters   

Baltimore City Paper home page.

The News Hole

Parking Trap?

July 30, 2012
By

Nick Mantel sends us this photo of his Infinity parked on the 200 block of Guilford Ave. on July 15. “Look at this picture,” he says in an email, “and explain to me how parking in this spot on a Sunday morning could possibly warrant me receiving a $77 ticket.”

For the record, the sign there says there’s no stopping in the area before the sign, and no stopping in the area after the sign–where Mantel’s car sits–from 7-9 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. on weekdays. An urban citizen’s spot.

Nick is a citizen. Pays his taxes, no criminal record, just a couple of speed camera tickets from last year, paid off. He thinks city leaders target people like him during hard economic times. “The markings of the spot are deceptive, and I believe that the city does this purposely in order to maximize its revenue from people who don’t have the time to go to court and fight,” Mantel writes. “This is wrong, and should be highlighted by news organizations like yours and stopped.”

According to Mantel, his ticket was for parking in a “Transit Zone.” He says there is such a zone about 50 feet ahead of his car as pictured—past the garage opening. He says the city told him that zone “overrides” the sign that would seem to allow anyone to occupy the space in question on weekends or during other non-prohibited hours.

Dubious logic on the city’s part, at best.

But a conspiracy? That would suggest forethought and strategy, instead of the usual government incompetence. We checked the 14,330 tickets issued for “Transit Zone” and found, yes, 18 issued on that block since 2009, 13 of which were issued on Saturdays or Sundays. Of the four tickets issued during the past half year, two were issued on Sundays and one on a Saturday. Whether that makes the 200 block of Guilford some kind of parking trap is up to your personal interpretation.

Know of any other absurd or misleading “no parking” zones around town? Send ‘em: letters@citypaper.com.

 

  • Amy H

    I squinted my eyes to read this and it appears clear that stopping – and presumably parking – is allowed on weekends. There is absolutely nothing posted there that prohibits it. The city needs to dedicate an officer to review unclear signs or educate its force of parking violation officers on what signs really mean. Is this too much to ask? This good citizen should get an apology from the city – and definitely not be required to appear in court.

  • D

    I have some great photos of a city owned vehicle, operated by a parking authority individual, illegally parked while said individual proceeded to ticket vehicles with expired meter slips. She parked at the end of the unit in a space that is clearly marked as not a parking space. What makes her exempt? It’s not an emergency and parking there is obviously a safety concern or it would be a legitimate spot.

  • Plucked

    My meter outside of the Visionary Arts museum had time left on it when I returned to find a ticket written to reflect the time it WOULD expire. Pretty obvious that a Virginia driver wouldn’t contest it; welcome to Baltimore.

  • POPOFF

    FIRST OFF YOU HAVE A MAYOR RUNNING A CITY THAT HAS NO CONTROL OF WHAT’S GOING ON

  • http://twitter.com/goeverywhere Erin McElvaney

    I was ticketed for not displaying a pay-to-park ticket in my dash in the harbor east area last year. Ironically, I had absolutely paid to park, and my ticket was clearly displayed right in the dash, immediately next to where the officer placed the ticket. The ticket was only for $30 but the ridiculousness of the situation was what really irritated me. I had to take off work in the middle of the day, drive to the courthouse, wait, and contest the ticket. Of course the officer never showed his/her face so I couldn’t ask wtf they were thinking. I definitely think they ticket freely with the expectation that many won’t be able to AFFORD taking off work to contest a ticket. How obnoxious. As if parking weren’t expensive enough already. …

  • DM

    I think the city purposely doesn’t put effort into making sure signage is correct, consistent, or appropriate a great deal of the time. In front of my building there was a length of two cars signed of as a 10 minute loading between 6pm-10pm. The pay to park sign was prior to this zone, with the arrow pointing away from it. This would logically make it seem that if you park there between the hours of 11pm and before 6pm you wouldn’t have to pay to park. However, I repeatedly got ticketed in the evening hours. I went to court for the first one and charges were dismissed, but for all the other tickets I requested investigation of the signage, and provided the first dismissal and photos of the signage, and even explained I didn’t know why it was a loading zone, because the only thing there was a restaurant that had been out of business for over two years. Each one of them came back denied and I had to pay. I finally gave up the fight, because there was no such thing as common sense on the part of the city, and no winning for me, even though it would seem I was in the right. Just the city being indignant and greedy. I simply stopped parking within these two spaces in front of my building at any time. Oddly enough, some months later, the signs were changed, doing away with the loading zone and clearly marking it as metered parking. hmmm…..yeah, so what all the sudden made them realize there didn’t need to be the loading zone and it needed signs to include it in the pay zone?!?! They thought it justified changing, but that it didn’t justify dismissing my tickets. That seems REALLY SCREWED UP!

  • DM

    They do this kind of thing ALL the time all over the city. I’m sure the answer from the city is that the rules don’t apply to them. At least she wasn’t double parked blocking a lane of the street. I see them do that all the time too.

  • E

    There is a spot in Mount Vernon right in front of my house that displays the normal Zone 28 parking permit sign. About 50 feet down the street there is the same sign with a “No Parking 4-6 Tow Away Zone” with an arrow pointing backwards. I have seen people (myself included) park next to the first sign without checking to see the second sign down the street says something different. The city will tows your car and charges you almost $300 to get it out of impound. You would think that if you park directly under a parking sign and it does not say anything about any particular parking restrictions and are displaying the proper permit you should be safe.

  • disqus_iWQxS1UNJ1

    I just spent 2 days in a row in traffic court fighting inaccurate tickets. Normally, I just pay the tickets because I figure it’s not worth the time, energy, and aggravation of going to court to fight them. However, these 2 tickets, issued in 2 different locations within a block of each other within 4 days of each other, both of which were inarguably wrong were where I drew the line. As I sat for a total of 2 hours, I heard several citizens who explained, with pictures, why they were “not guilty” based on the very confusing signs. At one point the judge even admitted he was utterly confused and granted him a “not guilty” pardon. Interestingly enough 3 of these citizens received their tickets on Guilford Ave.
    So parking traps? Conspiracy? Possibly a bit of both…the few brains in the offices to come up with the ideas of ways to bring in revenue from law abiding, tax paying citizens that will just pay up, and then the reliance on the incompetent government ding-a-lings to go out and “do their jobs”.
    One valuable piece of info I did learn from my time in traffic court….best not get caught parked in a handicap spot! It’s a $500 fine, with a slim chance of getting off, and if you do, only a reduction to a $200 fine!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=name&id=1118134806 Doc_S

    Mantel’s in the wrong, unfortunately. As much as I’d like to blame the otherwise shady city parking enforcement, parking is always according to the most RESTRICTIVE signage, not the most permissive. Buses are 45-60 ft long, depending on the route and bus type (articulated or not). Parking within 50 feet of a transit stop sign is going to get you a ticket, no matter what any other signs say.

  • Dave

    I recently got ticketed on 30th for “blocking an unmarked pedestrian walkway”. There are no signs there, are no painted curb or lines on the street, and my car was several feet in front of the sidewalk’s decline to street level (for a wheelchair or bike or whatever). I have a court date in 2 weeks, and lots of pictures.

  • Kimie

    I live in the city and the parking out front of my residence says no marking 7am-7pm mon-fri. It’s never an issue because normally I’m at work. However there’s been two instances where I’ve been home sick or off and have parked out front during the day (no one parked on the street) and I’d get tickets even if I left and came home. Am I not allowed to park in front of my home, in the same spot within a certain amount of time? That’s a $52 ticket…

  • Tracy Santoro

    My friend was ticketed while she was a across the street paying the meter and yelled over to the person, while running over with the ticket in hand. The lady said she had to issue it since she already typed it in and told her to mail in the ticket with the parking receipt and she’d be fine, however, the city came back and told her she had to fight it in court, which means she’d have to take off work. It’s a bunch of bs. For real.

  • dood

    How many times do you think a parking enforcement person hears the “I was just paying the meter” line per day?

  • dood

    Everybody bitches about it, but you can’t park within a car length of the curb or commercial driveway. They can’t put signs everywhere, you have to know this, or learn this the hard way. The sign doesn’t permit parking, it simply says you can get towed during certain times. It’s a safety issue as you are making it too difficult to pull in, or too hard to see on your way out of the garage.

  • dood

    If your house is on a “no parking 7am-7pm” street, no you can’t park there. And if it is a 2 hour zone (which it seems like based on your comment), then leaving and coming back doesn’t restart the clock.

  • matt

    yep, on Biddle, ive been towed by that trap and know several other people as well. There’s a truck ready to go right at 4 sometimes there, it’s ruthless. Can’t wait to move from this city, who wants to live in a place that does that to its citizens?

  • Pingback: grey drive