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You know that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you return to your car and there's something tucked under your windshield wipers--you can't quite tell yet--is that a ticket? Did you just get a parking ticket?! KING5 reports that the number of parking tickets in Seattle has increased "dramatically," thanks to cops zipping around on Segways, so that piece of paper flapping around on your windshield probably is a ticket and not another Jehovah's Witness pamphlet.
Seattlest is skilled at justifying traffic sin. "No Parking East Of Here" surely means our car can stick out a little bit (okay, 75%) past the physical sign itself, right? And at 5:15 p.m., surely no meter maid is still motivated to go around ticketing cars. Not when 6 p.m. is right around the corner. We can all agree--surely--that "Two Hour Parking" is more or less the same thing as Two Hours and Twenty Minutes.
The other side of the story after the jump.
After working as a traffic officer for one of the affluent malls in the area, however, we did develop some sympathy for the so-called "meter maids" (a term we came to despise when applied to us). There is the thrill of the hunt. After awhile, you recognize cars that have received tickets in the past and watch them carefully, circling back at the time limit to pounce with a ticket as soon as it's legal. Our policy was four tickets and a final warning (with a particularly awful orange sticker adhered to the driver's side window), and then we could call a tow truck. "What a violator!" we'd think, as we checked the car for body damage to report before letting the tow company haul it away. "This person must have no sense of civic responsibility or respect for their fellow parkers."
It's easy to lose perspective.
We quit before long. Still, the fact remains that we've been on both sides now, so consider this article a sympathetic warning: the Seattle Parking Enforcement department is fully staffed and equipped with Segways. It doesn't matter if they look silly; they can fine you, and they will fine you. You violator, you.
(Tip of the hat to CHS for alerting us to the article.)
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The worst is parking tickets around the Cinerama.
Your paying to see a two hour and ten minute movie, you pay the full amount the city allows you to pay to park on the street and you still get a ticket even though you are patronizing downtown businesses and paying the maximum amount allowed.
I think around movie theatres there needs to be an exemption or at least some leinency. That's my whiny two cents.
I second John's comment. Even if you try to use the pay lot on 5th, it's often full because the theater is so huge, so all you've got is street parking. And the DARK KNIGHT is 2.5 hours! Add in the previews, and you're screwed.
Here's an idea: Park at Pacific Place and walk the five or so odd blocks to the Cinerama. Sheesh.
Or go on Sunday. Or after 6:00 any other day.
@garuda70, James: you're not even American, are you?!
i have an unparking ticket from last summer. whoopsie. doesn't city hall have a "no extra penalty" sale or something like that every once in awhile - or no?
@ronspeno: I think the "every once in a while" is a fairly long while. It looks like the last two Seattle parking ticket amnesty months were in 1997 and 2004.
And of course, now that all the municipal ticketing agencies are tied into the State network, you can't just ignore the tickets anymore, since any unpaid fines will get flagged when your vehicle license renewal comes up.
Technology is not ALWAYS used for teh good...