street sweeping ticket

[nhradar.livejournal.com]

I've got a sort of random street-sweeping question that someone in the community might be able to answer.

I live over on the Thorndike Street dead-end next to Kingston, on the south side of the bike path. Both sides of the street are marked for Wednesday street sweeping, and until this year, I've never seen sweeping on Thursdays. But April 10, I got a ticket for parking on the dead end on the Thursday (the only time that the street's been swept on a Thursday; since that time I haven't seen a street sweeper). I appealed by mail including a picture of the sign, and got it rejected as a validly-issued ticket.

Does anyone here understand the grounds? Is there a law that says even/odd side controls, regardless of the signs? I'm just sort of at a loss as to the reasoning for it being a valid ticket.

Comments

[inahandbasket]

I'd re-contest that honestly.
If the sign says Wednesday that's bullshit.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Did the ticket definitely say that the violation was due to street-sweeping?

I'd call 311 and try to talk to somebody about it to get clarification. I've generally had good luck with that, and the 311 calls are answered by the T&P people, anyway.

[nhradar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was for obstructing Street Sweeping. I was really confused when I saw the sweeper coming down the street (one of the reasons I was pretty annoyed at the ticket was that I was fully capable of moving my car in time, had I any reason to suspect that I should).

Thanks for the 311 suggestion. I didn't know if that was a route to get this sort of question answered.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

That's exactly the sort of question I've found 311 useful for, in fact. You may not be able to get it cleared over the phone, but figuring out wtf the violation actually *is* is a good first step to that end.

Good luck!

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

I think you'll probably do better by making an appointment and going in in person, than by a phone call. Take a couple photos, sit down calmly and politely, and I bet you'll win it. On the phone it's too easy for either or both parties to take a hard line withtout having to interact with the other person face-to-face.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I second (fourth, etc.) what the other commenters said. I would definitely try to contest this again, either via 311 or in person. If nothing else, tell the parking office that they should be coming by to fix the signs if they're going to ticket based on something other than what the signs say.

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

If the street is posted for Wednesday, and your ticket is written for that address and issued on a Thursday, then this is pretty bizarre. Street sweepers are sometimes sent out "opportunistically" to clean on "off" days, but they must do their best to around the parked cars -- no enforcement is supposed to occur on those days.

311 will give you the information about how to request an in-person hearing. If you have problems, please call me at 617-625-6600 x2620.

Preemptive Notice to all DSLJers: I DO NOT HAVE THE POWER TO FORGIVE TICKETS
.
(I'm just curious about this one because it's so weird.)

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

"Preemptive Notice to all DSLJers: I DO NOT HAVE THE POWER TO FORGIVE TICKETS"

Your list of powers is already lengthy - adding this would simply make Superman less Super. Soup thanks you for letting him keep his name.

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

are *all* the signs on that side Wed, or just the one across from you, or just the dead end bit (if that has more than one sign) just that one block? I mean, for a dead-end it makes sense to to both halves on the same day, even tho that is a break in the normal policy, and I can see droids getting confused by the abberation.

I can also see people on thorndike having complained about both-sides-same-day forcing them onto another street, and the PTBs noting that that should change, passing the policy down, and forgetting to have the signage redone or the sign folks not just getting to it....

Any and all of the above should make it not your problem for contesting the ticket.

Did the photo you shoot have enough scenery that it was clear as to the side it was on? I can also see them thinking that it was a doctored photo, but you are so close ot the ticket office you can walk them to it and show them, if needbe.....

[nhradar.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I made doubly sure the day of the ticket (and, this is the only thursday there's ever been street sweeping, even this year. My guess is that they accidentally swept the street that day, given that it was the beginning of the year and it might not seem logical to a new or new-to-the-neighborhood driver not to go down).
There's only one sign on the street from the intersection with Kingston to the dead end on that side, and it's for Wednesday. It's a pretty picture, where you can see the wednesday and my license plate in the same shot. :)

[islandofzilan.livejournal.com]

i would definitely try to contest it, either by talking to someone over the phone or going in to see someone face-to-face.

Good luck to you. =)

[unbelman.livejournal.com]

We must be neighbors. I also live in one of the 4 houses on that dead end and the same thing happened to me last year. Since the Parking Office is so close, I just took a picture and walked over to the office. They got rid of the ticket right there.

I've also had tickets for parking in the "wrong direction." On such a narrow dead end, it's difficult to say what the wrong direction is. The funny thing is I've received tickets for parking in either direction in basically the same spot.

I also was given a ticket for parking more than a foot from the curb. I measured, one tire was 14 inches from the curb, the other 6 inches. It was where that tree grows on the corner and it is hard to get too close. Let's say the people at the Parking Office might know me by sight now.