5 Common NYC Parking Ticket Mistakes, and How to Fix Them

Last Updated on August 19, 2021 by Lawrence Berezin

Are you making these common NYC parking ticket mistakes?

NYC parking ticket mistakes can cost you and your car serious money. For example, the fine for a no-standing violation is $115. Secondly, how about standing in a bus stop zone? $115. In addition, what will it cost to blocking a pedestrian ramp? $165.

Therefore, it behooves us to eliminate as many parking ticket mistakes as possible and to do a pinky swear never to make the same mistake twice.

Let’s see if we can eliminate five of those costly blunders.

No standing versus No parking

I get many questions about the activities that can be performed in no standing and no parking zones. The confusion arises when we forget the difference.

You are permitted to drop off or pick up passengers in a no-standing zone but no personal property. For example, if you have groceries in the trunk of your chariot and want to unload the bags to the curb, don’t do it in a no-standing zone.

In a no parking zone, however, you are permitted to unload people and property.

Legal versus illegal pedestrian ramps

This is one of my major gripes with warriors and cops. NYC parking tickets are still being issued for parking in front of legal pedestrian ramps.

It is legal to park in front of a pedestrian ramp with no:

• Marked crosswalk
• Traffic control device
• Traffic signs

Here’s a diagram from the NYC Department of Transportation website. The red circles display legal parking spaces.

Guessing where a bus stop ends

Please, please do not guess where a bus stop ends because you’ll never get it right. And the wrong guess will cost you $115.

That is to say, a bus stop starts at the bus stop sign and extends in the direction of the arrow(s) at the bottom of the bus stop sign until the next parking sign, or if none, the end of the block. The length of a bus stop varies from block to block. It is a tough NYC parking ticket to beat.

My car can’t be towed unless there is a tow-away zone sign

All of New York City is a tow-away zone. No notice is necessary. LIkewise, there doesn’t have to be a sign notifying you of this dangerous and costly state of affairs.

There was no yellow painted curb

We can all fill in the blank. There was no yellow painted curb to show the length of a ________ (bus stop, fire hydrant zone, no standing-no parking zone-safety zone, etc.). The reason is that NYC does not paint its curbs yellow to help us identify no stopping, no standing, or no parking zones.

This omission tends to catch NYC visitors who are used to painted yellow curbs back home. Sorry folks, NYC has undercover curbs, no yellow paint.

Commentary

Learning is relentless repetition, especially when it comes to learning the rules of the curb. But, if you graduate with an ‘A,’ you get to keep your money where it belongs…In your wallet.

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