But it's Wednesday!

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Just a quick note to say that I was at Team Trivia last night at P.J. Ryans and when my friends and I left the pub at 12:15, we had tickets on our cars for street sweeping.

EXCEPT that street sweeping for Holland Street is on Mondays, not Wednesdays.

I actually caught the traffic guy writing tickets:

Me: Hey, are you writing tickets for street sweeping?
Him: Yeah.
Me: But it's Wednesday and this is a Monday street.
Him: Oh, ooops! Sorry about that.

He took my ticket back to void it (for which I gave him an earnest high-five) but said if anyone else got a ticket, they should just appeal it. There were at least several cars on the street with tickets so get on the appealing!

Edited to add: This post seems to have opened a wider discussion about over-zealous ticketing (as opposed to reasonable, above-board ticketing). I can't make it to the Mayor's office hours tonight but would love if someone, who has experienced something like this (invalid tickets/overdue notices with no ticket) would bring it up with him. Also, I do have the officer's badge number and last name (from my friend who left before her ticket could be voided) but don't think it's appropriate to humiliate him in a public forum.

Comments

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Don't know. We called my friend to get her plate number so I could give it to him for voiding but while we were on the phone he said that he couldn't wait because he "had to go."

Ticket Issued in Error

[bostonartist.livejournal.com]

That is Bull$hit. If the city issues anyone a ticket for street sweeping on the wrong day and then you have to spend YOUR time to appeal it, the city should give you the appeal + $100 for your time!

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

seriously. and now who's to say when you go to appeal it and you finally hear back god knows when that some lady in an office is going to know this cop screwed up?

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Well, the date of the ticket is 07/09, a Wednesday.

The location on the ticket is Holland St. Since the T&P office is ON Holland St., I imagine that they would look at an appeal and know that those two don't add up.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Holy crap. That's pretty lousy.

Who wants to bet that all appeals are going to be rejected? Feh.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

That's either an egregious error on the traffic guy's part, or worse, intentional. I can't believe the guy would get the day wrong. On more than one occasion, I've had out-of-state guests get tickets while using my guest pass within the two-day limit. I'm really starting to think that they ticket knowing that the appeals process is more annoying than paying a wrongfully issued parking ticket, especially for someone from out of state. The fact that the guy didn't fix his mistake, at the expense of a lot of people's time, is pathetic. That's border-line theft in my book.

[lonelyholiday.livejournal.com]

I'm really starting to think that they ticket knowing that the appeals process is more annoying than paying a wrongfully issued parking ticket, especially for someone from out of state.

Yeah, maybe they got this idea from the credit card companies who put random fees on accounts, figuring people either won't notice or won't have time to call (and wait for 20 minutes on hold) and complain.

[melodiousjoy.livejournal.com]

That just happened to one of my out of state guests too. She was within the limit and had my valid guest pass in her car. A ticket was not left on her car, it was mailed to her. The worst part is that by the time the ticket got to her, it was late and now she has that fee tacked on as well. Sorry, I just needed to complain, I'm a little pissed about it.

Anyway, were your guests successful in appealing those tickets?

BTW, its not borderline theft, it IS theft.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

That's curious--I know the last time this happened, no ticket was put on my guest's car either. She just got something in the mail about it being overdue. The appeal is in progress, but she's doing it via mail, so I think chances of a happy outcome are slim to none.

[melodiousjoy.livejournal.com]

Now I'm even more pissed. So is this the strategy, to issue bogus tickets to out-of-staters because it is less likely that they will appeal? Not to mention mailing them the tickets leaves them no opportunity to deal with it while they are in town.

Forgive me for sounding paranoid but I'm feeling that our friends were victimized. Has this happened to anyone else?

I would love to bring this up with the Mayor tonight at Diesel. Unfortunately, I can't make it.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

More than that, the parking restriction doesn't actually kick in until 0800! You were there at 0015, and they were *already* ticketing? Even were it a Wednesday street, that's ridiculous.

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

I could be wrong, but I do think some streets start ticketing at midnight.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

Wowzers. That stinks. I guess it makes sense for high-traffic roads like Holland, but it really makes me appreciate the 8-AM restriction on my street, which means as long as I leave for work, I'm OK.

[dani-namaste.livejournal.com]

On the major roads, they start sweeping after midnight. It's only on the residential streets they start sweeping at 8am.

[violet-helix.livejournal.com]

Some areas do kick in at midnight. Highland Ave is restricted from midnight - 6am on street sweeping days. I don't know for a fact what the time frame for Holland Street is, but there are definitely areas where midnight is the start of the ban.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

did you get the parking and traffic persons id number?

this, combined with the ticketing someone got earlier on his street which wasn't on a sweeping day, proves that the city needs to do some MAJOR retraining and corrective action plan for its parking enforcement personnel.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

You know, I didn't.

He seemed sort of tired. His job is already pretty thankless and probably earns him lots of yelling/abuse from people anyway. He didn't seem to be doing anything malicious and his apology (when I pointed out his mistake) was genuine.

I was feeling empathy for someone making a mistake at his job (which I do dozens of times a day at mine) and so I didn't feel compelled to report him. I could give a physical description and a description of his car if pressed.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

Mistakes are understandable; lordy, I've made my share. But, especially when my mistakes harm other people, I make every effort possible to rectify it. I'd be ashamed not to. This guy screwed up and he passed the buck.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Well, because one of my friends left before she could have her ticket voided, I do have his badge number and last name.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Funny, I read that and thought you said "major restraining".

I am all in favor of strict enforcement of parking rules. You'd never be able to find a parking space otherwise.

But there comes a point, in my opinion, where a line is crossed, and this is such a case.

This is also not the first time an incident like this has happened. I was towed for street sweeping about five years ago a few minutes before the 7:00am start time. Apparently, there was some class action or something, because I later got a check from the city refunding part of my money, but not all, and certainly none of my time and aggravation.

I wonder if unsuspecting people will simply pay the ticket?

The city needs to write a letter to those ticketed informing them not to pay and voiding their tickets. There's no appeal here as no parking law has been broken.

I feel this attitude of ticket first and ask questions later needs to be addressed. Better they spend their money repairing the awful Somerville roads and enforcing traffic laws.

[skexy.livejournal.com]

AAAHHH, but they're not spending money; they're makng it on this scam.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Definitely. I don't know how much the ticketing people make (what is the modern term for "meter maid?") but I'm guessing it's $10-$15/hour. If they write ONE ticket per hour, they are making the city money.

Also, I think about the relationship between city government and local business.

PJ Ryans is open until 1. Ticketing people 10 minutes past midnight could potentially harm/hurt business if enough patrons get burned by it and decide not to risk it. It seems like it would be in the interest of good city-business relations to not be so aggressive and wait until 1am or so.

[tigercelly.livejournal.com]

what is the appeals process, btw?

[violet-helix.livejournal.com]

You can appeal by mail or request an in-person appeal hearing. From what I've been able to gather, in-person hearings have a far greater chance of getting a bad ticket fixed.

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

in my experience (3 or 4 times) appealing by mail is a complete dead end - and worse, they don't even reply with an outcome - except to tack on a fee and send an overdue notice. Maybe other people have had better experience but it seems a waste of effort to appeal by mail.

[ellf.livejournal.com]

Help us, Tom Champion - you're our only hope.

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

show us your princess leia buns!!

[kalliejenn2.livejournal.com]

might not be a bad idea to bring this up with the mayor himself at his "office hours" at diesel

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

I would really love it if someone would bring up over-zealous ticketing with the mayor -- I can't be there.

[winterhill.livejournal.com]

Completely ridiculous. Absurd. And *almost* hard to believe. But it is T&P and they (with the exception of the extremely nice women in the office) suck ass.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

Even those nice women in the office can turn real mean if you let 'em. I pity any person who speaks English as a second language who has some oddball request, like for a guest pass. I've seen them turn absolutely wicked on people who struggle with English.

Though I wholeheartedly agree that T&P sucks ass.

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

To those who asked about it, in the vicinity of PJ Ryans there is street sweeping that starts at midnight. I also do hear the street sweeper machine sometimes around 4am. However, I think its ridiculous to enforce street sweeping that starts at MIDNIGHT, in front and around a business that is open until 1am. I've had many a friend get ticketed for this. Seriously, who would even think to check for midnight street sweeping.

[maelithil.livejournal.com]

Uh, everyone? I don't even drive and I make sure to check when the street sweeping is if we're parked in an unfamiliar road.

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

Well aren't you awesome.

I can only speak to the experience of my friends who are long time Somerville and cambridge residents who have made the same mistake, and the people in this very thread who didn't even know there was such a thing as midnight street sweeping hours on a sign.

[maa3120.livejournal.com]

I got ticketed last night, and I still have the ticket. And now I've got to appeal the freaking thing, which is a huge pain in my butt.

I can't make it myself, but if anyone here is going to the Mayor's office hours tonight would like the officer's name and badge number, I'll be happy to give them to you. Just email me at maa3120 at gmail dot com and I'll get it to you.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

I wonder how hard it would be to program the meter maids' handheld ticket printers to know about each street's regulations, and refuse to issue a ticket at a time when the violation doesn't apply.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Hrm. That sure would be a nifty piece of programming to work on. Don't know how expensive that would be but it's an interesting idea for sure.