Austinist: Know Your Parking Laws or Be Prepared to Pay the Consequences

Anon

Sun, 06 May 2007 01:10:49 -0600

Wow, basic parking laws seem to escape people. Why on earth would you thik that getting one ticket would allow you to park for free the rst of the day? LOL, You should have gotten a ticket for being stupid as well.

george

Sat, 05 May 2007 01:03:39 -0600

austinist, do you have a legal citation in what part of the austin code permits multiple citations for the same parking violation 2 hours afterwards? i have a similar situation except my violation (tow away zone) does not have any time basis (i.e. a meter) to justify multiple violations!!!! help!!

odam

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 17:15:08 -0600

they can give you a ticket when the meter runs out, then they can give you a ticket 2 hours (or the max time of the meter) later.

Kat

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 16:17:52 -0600

I think they can give you as much as one ticket per hour that you are illegally parked. I, like most people, learned that the hard way. Anybody ever take classes at ACC Rio Grande campus?

triSARAtops

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 12:52:34 -0600

How come the bitchy people are always anonymous? Personally, I like to take credit for acting like a punkass on the internet. I'm sure anonymous up there always reads the fine print, never makes assumptions, and has never gotten righteously indignant about getting a ticket because after all, it was his/her fault. Right. Probably poops at the same time each day too.

Jonathon

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 10:48:34 -0600

Dudes, I used to work on 6th street in a job that didn't offer me a parking space (I didn't have it long). SO, I used to park on 6th, East of Congress, where you can park for free for two hours, but two hours only -- then you gotta move. Every two hours (or so), I would leave my desk, walk to wherever the hell I'd found a parking space, and then move my car to a different part of 6th street -- sometimes only a few yards from where I had been parked before. If I ever forgot, or left it 30min longer than I should've...BAM, $25, thank you very little. It drove me nuts -- I could've pushed the damn thing a few yards forward and I wouldn't gotten a ticket. It's like they operate on principle down there. I was making so little that these mental lapses starting outpacing my salary...and then it was off to new employment. Just thought I'd share, seeing as everyone else has.

john

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 10:15:14 -0600

shitty.. i was lucky enough recently when I kept putting off paying a ticket, i called after 15 days expecting to pay $30, and they said it was only $15.

Ashley

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 00:42:22 -0600

Be lucky you don't live on campus- I got a $50 ticket for 5 minutes in a no parking zone. It used to be a "30 minute loading zone" and I didn't see the sign change. There were about 15 other cars parked along the same curb and none of them had tickets.. so I figured I would jump out of my car and grab something. literally less than 5 min later, I had $50 less.

Jooley Ann

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 21:24:44 -0600

Man. This is just wayyyyy too much math.

odam

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 18:09:28 -0600

as for the 30 to the man, well i didn't/couldn't swing the fifteen or something. so i knew i would take a hit and pay the 30, almost as an extra form of punishment to myself. see, now you'll learn your lesson, matthew. 5 minutes is the same as 120 minute.s i was just ohping it wouldn't be a 90 dolalr lesson. ok, enough defending myself to anonymous people

odam

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 18:02:04 -0600

i have helped many people get cars after being towed. very expensive and very dubious practices, to be sure. yea, if course i should have paid the meter, anon. that's what "forgetting" is, it's when you "forget" to do something. this one, however, did not say anyhting about multiple tix. yes, you are right, you must have studied math. 5 minutes is as over the limit as 120 minutes. i was not saying the fine should be less due to time, i was just bemoaning the fact that those five minutes cost me. i will also note that the meter readers can see the neg. time coming off, and you get 3 minutes of leeway, so there was an indicaiton of how late i was, five minutes. i was not implying that it was not over. i am not daft.

anon

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 17:55:11 -0600

Most meters say what their time limit is and that multiple tickets can be issued. Should have just paid the meter. Its also funny that you complain about having to pay the man, yet you don't come up with $15 and elect to give them another $15 for free by not paying within 15 days. I also applaud your stance on 5 minutes over being differnt than 2 hours over - um...welll...no...it's not. You see, when it expires, it expires.

kayvaan

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 17:49:24 -0600

sucks to be you. one of the many ways that cities make money of their citizens. ever had your car towed? THAT's expensive. and btw - a lot of meters do say "multiple tickets will be issued". don't know if yours did, but I've seen many that do.

SplendaRob

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 17:36:09 -0600

Maybe they are in cahoots with the valet parking industry, who are out to blanket the parking meters of Austin in bright, don't-you-dare-think-about-parking-your-sub-thirtythoussandollar-car-here orange.

odam

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 16:44:05 -0600

we are still fiddling with how/when to incorporate the expand-o-tron. what, you don't like getting your morals-to-stories after the jump? thanks for the feedback, rob. no, we rarely ever have boots in this town. but my delinquent notice said something about a colleciton agency, and i don't need my credit any wors than it already is. we are lucky, also, that we do not have meter-feeidng enforced. in DC you can not feed oyur meter or they will ticket you. here you can go feed it all day. but they are so viligant here. they are hawks donwtown. they must get paid on commission. anyone know?

SplendaRob

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 16:38:35 -0600

Good thing we don't live somewhere that makes frequent use of the wheel boots for parking violations. Or do we? I haven't noticed. Aside: Was it really necessary to make use of the expand-o-tron for the one teeny paragraph?

Derek

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 16:15:49 -0600

Oh man, you think that's bad!? A couple years ago when living on 26th and San Pedro by campus, I parked my car in front of our rent house, in its usual spot, at about 2pm. I proceed to spend the rest of the day inside and pass out early that night. I wake up the next morning, step outside and see a fat parking ticket on my car's windshield, with a newly erected no parking pole/sign jammed into the soil right behind it. Apparently they stuck that sign in the ground (without notifying anyone) and gave me a ticket all in that short span of time. I'm like "You have to be freaking kidding me, right?". So I figure it's just bad luck and/or timing and go down to the court house to get my quick and easy reimbursement for this pesky ticket. No such luck! Lady there actually claims that it's my responsibility to check my car every 4 hours when parked on any street, just in case something has changed! I nearly blew my freakin top, and fortunately the lady caved and waved my ticket, but can you believe that crap?