Parking Ticket

When I took Sam to the vet finding parking was a total bitch. A find many spaces but couldn't park in them because there was street cleaning on that day. I left my house later than I had planned in part because Sam had wedged himself underneath the bed.

Finally with like 5 minutes to spare I found one. The street went along and there was an alley and right before the entrance to the alley was a spot. I carefully looked at the signs. There was a no parking sign indicating not to park to close to the entrance to the alley. There was then a parking sign. It said what parking zone sticker to have so you could park there all you wanted and how long you could park if you didn't have a sticker (two hours). I has just enough space to fit the car because there were cars parked behind me.

When I returned to the vet, I had a ticket on my car. I got a $30 fine for parking on the street when there was street cleaning going on. The ticket said sign clearly marked. If I'd been about 10 minutes earlier I would have gotten away.

Now here's the thing. The sign directly in front of where I parked had no mention of the street cleaning. In fact as far as I could tell it was the only pole without the street cleaning sign. The actually street cleaning sign was four car lengths back if you include my car. Why exactly would I walk four car lengths to look at a parking sign if one was right in front of me. All the other cars behind me had tickets too. But the cars on the other side of the alley on the same side of the street as mine had no tickets. If you're going to clean the street you clean one whole side of the street. You don't stop in mid-block. That would make no sense.

For a very very brief second I thought about fighting the ticket but decided it was not worth the bother. I have to remember to make a copy of the ticket and the check before I send it off to the D.C. Treasurer. It is good to know that at least one thing in DC works so well, efficiently and brings in money.