More City Parking Madness (Pittsburgh, Reading: wedding, legal, buses)

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

In this article I see no reason why this man received a citation while the vehicle across the street, the same distance from the marked crosswalk, did not, just because that side of the street had a meter and his did not. If you don't want people to park on the other side of the street, then a yellow curb and/or a few of those "P" signs with the double-headed red arrows underneath them attached to utility poles would work, would they not?

Of course they would work, but what's the expense to mark every crosswalk in the City in such a manner? Shouldn't we mark every fire hydrant as well?

Bottom line is that he parked in an illegal spot and had to pay a fine. You're arguing whether the spot should be illegal, which is a different question and largely beside the point. He admits in the article that he thought the law stipulated 10 feet, instead of 20 from a crosswalk.

Parking seems to strike a particular nerve with you given your current occupation. I suggest that you bone up:

http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/pgh...articleVII.pdf

As we've learned, ignorance is no excuse.

[UKyank]

I got a ticket downtown on Thanksgiving day morning. Yes, I did park at a meter, and no I did not put any money in it. I was dropping off food to one of the churches down there to give out. I may have been 1 of 5 cars in all of downtown at the time.... I just had to shake my head in disbelief that the city was paying an officer to enforce parking on a day when the place is completely empty.
Too bad intelligence is not a criteria for being an official in our city.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Lobick

Parking seems to strike a particular nerve with you given your current occupation. I suggest that you bone up:

http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/pgh...articleVII.pdf

As we've learned, ignorance is no excuse.

I've just perused that very informative file, and nowhere in there do I see where the city makes exceptions for FedEx, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service, and "favored" delivery and/or non-delivery vehicles. My "particular nerve" is struck when I witness impartial parking enforcement. When I make $10/hr. why should I be paying a $30 citation when someone making twice as much as I am who is parked as illegally as I am, if not more, and is nearly adjacent to me doesn't receive a citation?

Here's a relevant discussion: fedex/ups and parking tickets [Archive] - DVD Talk Forum

It appears as if it's "selective" as to which delivery vehicles get cut slack and which others don't, and I, for one, don't foresee how Pittsburgh can justify selectively enforcing parking on only certain delivery vehicles and not others. How much do FedEx and UPS pony up to the city to compensate for not receiving parking tickets, and, if they don't, they why don't they follow NYC's lead in forcing them to pay a fixed amount annually to avoid the hassle? If I didn't constantly see FedEx and UPS trucks blocking traffic everywhere Downtown while the drivers took their sweet time making their deliveries I wouldn't be so agitated that I fly in and out of places and DO receive tickets if and when the meter DOES run out because a customer/recipient took too long to come claim their delivery.

[fleetiebelle]

Originally Posted by UKyank

I got a ticket downtown on Thanksgiving day morning. Yes, I did park at a meter, and no I did not put any money in it. I was dropping off food to one of the churches down there to give out. I may have been 1 of 5 cars in all of downtown at the time.... I just had to shake my head in disbelief that the city was paying an officer to enforce parking on a day when the place is completely empty.
Too bad intelligence is not a criteria for being an official in our city.

I usually think of situations like that as: the guy has to work on a holiday, so dang straight he's going to give out as many tickets as he can.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by fleetiebelle

I usually think of situations like that as: the guy has to work on a holiday, so dang straight he's going to give out as many tickets as he can.

This reminds me of when I was 17 and stocking the dairy department at our local grocery store. An elderly woman came up to me to grab a quart of milk and asked me "Why are you working on the Lord's day?" (it was a Sunday). I asked her "Well, if you weren't shopping on the Lord's day, then we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we?" She didn't know how to respond. For what it's worth, she was one of our "regulars", and I never again saw her on a Sunday---just other days of the week. It's amazing the number of people whom I would be helping load plywood and drywall into their pick-up trucks on Christmas Eve while working at Lowe's telling me "I wish you weren't working on a holiday like this". Are people in this nation really THAT dumb to realize that the ONLY reason retailers are open on holidays is because the demand is there from those very same people questioning why we're opening and patronizing us on those same days anyways? It may irk me that my Chick-Fil-A cravings seem to coincide with Sundays, the day they happen to be closed to ensure all of their staff has at least one day per week to spend with their families, but I grin and bear it because it's respectable in my eyes for a business to ensure their staff can have a decent work/life balance.

[Mr. Mon]

I too recently received one of the "within 20' of a crosswalk" tickets. I was parked after-hours in a loading zone, which is legal. However, in the Parking Authority's scramble to accrue as much as possible in fines I was hit with this sudden obscure enforcement of the 20' rule. Odd, considering that both of the metered spaces closest to the crosswalk in question are not compliant with the rule. And yes, I am appealing the ticket.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by fleetiebelle

I usually think of situations like that as: the guy has to work on a holiday, so dang straight he's going to give out as many tickets as he can.

I don't blame the guy who gave me the ticket, he was doing his job afterall; its the guy who decided that there needed to be a guy working on the holiday to enforce things which didn't need to be enforced that I have the problem with.

[SteelCityRising]

If someone could tell me the logic as to why city officials give a "free pass" to certain delivery vehicles and not others then I wouldn't be so agitated about parking enforcement. I may just go to the next city council meeting and ask how much FedEx and UPS contribue annually into the city's coffers in lieu of "getting a break" all the time on Downtown parking tickets whereas we other working joes who earn half what those drivers do have to pay $30 citations left and right out of our own pockets for doing less egregious things than they do. If they can't show me that UPS and FedEx give them an annual "bribe" of sorts, the way they do with NYC to avoid tickets, then I'm refusing to pay any further parking tickets levied against my delivery vehicle. If those two behemoths DO pay the city to lay off on parking enforcement, then I'll back down. If not, then I'm going to make life a living hell for UPS and FedEx in this city so they can stop feeling invincible and stomach the pain of circling forever to find a legal spot or paying up out of their own wallets.

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

I've just perused that very informative file, and nowhere in there do I see where the city makes exceptions for FedEx, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service, and "favored" delivery and/or non-delivery vehicles.

I doesn't, notr was it my intention to suggest that it did.

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

My "particular nerve" is struck when I witness impartial parking enforcement.

I don't think that's what you meant.

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

When I make $10/hr. why should I be paying a $30 citation when someone making twice as much as I am who is parked as illegally as I am, if not more, and is nearly adjacent to me doesn't receive a citation?

Seems to me you should take that up with your employer. Seems to me that the bigger companies accept an occasional ticket as the cost of doing business.

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

It appears as if it's "selective" as to which delivery vehicles get cut slack and which others don't, and I, for one, don't foresee how Pittsburgh can justify selectively enforcing parking on only certain delivery vehicles and not others.

There is selective enforcement of all kinds of laws. There are all kinds of ways to justify it. The most obvious is certainly the economic benefit those vehicles bring to the City at large. Additionally, I would think that the population of the City at large is more tolerant of a double parked FedEx truck than just about any other vehicle I can imagine. The Police could claim they're responding to the priorities of their citizens/ constituents.

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

How much do FedEx and UPS pony up to the city to compensate for not receiving parking tickets, and, if they don't, they why don't they follow NYC's lead in forcing them to pay a fixed amount annually to avoid the hassle? If I didn't constantly see FedEx and UPS trucks blocking traffic everywhere Downtown while the drivers took their sweet time making their deliveries I wouldn't be so agitated that I fly in and out of places and DO receive tickets if and when the meter DOES run out because a customer/recipient took too long to come claim their delivery.

Not sure about the initial part but my sense would be that such a payment wouldn't be legal. I suspect the City may have some payment system worked out with the larger courier services, but I suspect that would do little to suppress your ire.

Bottom line, I think you need to get you employer to pick up a certain amount/ number of your tickets.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Lobick

Bottom line, I think you need to get you employer to pick up a certain amount/ number of your tickets.

Then I get fired. Next suggestion? For what it's worth I've only had three tickets in the seven months I've been delivering Downtown. A floral delivery person told me he never gets tickets because he sits a cardboard sign on his windshield when he parks that says "Be back in five minutes". I don't foresee how that makes him any "superior" to any other delivery driver. I also don't agree with you that FedEx and UPS are "more important" than all other delivery vehicles.