Last Updated on June 12, 2023 by Lawrence Berezin
Once is a parking mistake, and twice is a choice.
Have you ever made these two costly parking mistakes at the same time?
- Parking in a no-standing zone with an expired registration?
- Or, parking within 15 feet of a fire hydrant with an expired inspection sticker?
- You were, thirdly, parked in a bus stop zone while you waited for Aunt Tilly’s bus to arrive with a missing front plate.
In other words, why park illegally when you know your car is a “walking” status violation? It reminds me of my first criminal trial when my client, Joe Badperson, was charged with illegal possession of a firearm. That is to say, Joe stuck a gun in his belt and speeded down the Garden State Parkway, exceeding 80 m.p.h. Yikes!
Guess what? He was pulled over by a State Trooper and immediately arrested. Twice is a choice, right?
Common, costly parking mistakes to avoid
-First, double parking and running into Starbucks for your morning brewski [$115]
-Parking ‘0’ feet from a fire hydrant at 11 p.m. [$115]
-Or, parking ‘0’ from a fire hydrant in your taxi cab to grab 15 minutes of shuteye. [$115]
-Next, parking 40 feet from the bus stop sign without checking where the next parking sign was located. [$115]
-Standing in a no-standing zone with a missing inspection sticker. [$115 + $65]
-Paying an overtime parking ticket without checking whether the warrior entered “first observation time.” [$65]
-Parking in a legal parking space with a missing registration sticker and expired inspection sticker [$65 + $65].
Parking mistakes and how to correct them
Here’s one of the biggest and awfullest unforced errors. It is driving away from your parking space and not taking photos. That is to say, you need certain time/dated photos to properly prepare your winning defense.
For example, a fire hydrant violation. if your defense is you parked more than 15 feet from the fire hydrant. Here’s a photo diagram showing the proper elements to include.
How about an expired meter violation?
Do you remember to check the “meter number” and “limit” on the ticket? Remember, the meter number and not the zone number must be entered. Bigly mistake not to check.
In the parking violation below, the Meter # was misdescribed. In other words, the warrior entered the “Zone” number (a six-digit #) instead of the “Meter” number (a seven-digit #). Likewise, victory is ours!
Do you know the meaning of “straddling” a parking space?
Meanwhile, here’s what the Evil Empire has to say about straddling.
Where a car is “straddling” the pole containing a sign with a one directional arrow, that car will be deemed to be in the restricted zone of that sign if any part of the car in the restricted zone creates the violation.
Evil Empire
Here’s what it looks like
Here’s the costly parking mistake
The arrow on the street cleaning sign points right. Ergo, since the car “straddled” the gotcha pole, it violated the street cleaning rule. However, what’s worse is that a bus stop zone was to the left of the street cleaning sign. Double ergo, the car was considered in the bus stop zone, too.
That’s $65 for the street cleaning violation and $115 for the bus stop violation. You can pay at the door, Mr. Driver.
Commentary
We’ve all made costly parking mistakes in NYC. Likewise, I think this song says it best.
NYC drivers have the courage and intelligence to learn from their mistakes. That’s why “we are the champions, my friends. And we’ll keep on fighting until the end!”
Free Download
While we’re on the subject of mistakes, have you ever lost a fire hydrant ticket? Or, any NYC parking ticket? If so, this guide is for you, “Common Mistakes in Fighting an NYC Fire Hydrant Violation and How to Fix Them.”
It will show you the following:
-The mistakes a great client of mine made preparing his defense to a fire hydrant violation and lost.
-A winning way to prepare a defense to the same violation.
-And other helpful tips about what went wrong and how to change “wrong to right.”
Just click on the pretty button below, enter your first name and email address, and the valuable guide is yours for free.
That’s what most people do. So why complaine ?
Hey Gary,
Good afternoon.
Thanks for taking your valuable time to comment.