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parking ticket... IN MY OWN DRIVEWAY!?

dissolvedego

dissolvedego

New member
Joined
May 21, 2005
Location
berkeley, ca
Moto(s)
SV650
is this right?

today was street cleaning day, and both myself and my neighbor were ticketed for having our cars parked in our driveways.

we have small driveways which means that we have to park our cars partially over the sidewalk... it's just the way the property was designed. if it was a ticket for obstructing the sidewalk i could understand, but it has nothing to do with street cleaning. i've always parked there with no problems.

the only thing i can think of is that when it's parked in the driveway the car's rear bumper portrudes slightly into the street. but all 4 wheels are completely off the street... and that's what counts, right?

i don't wanna pay a parking ticket for parking in my own @#$@ing driveway, this is ridiculous! :x
 
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Sadly, all parking complaints in almost EVERY city are handled by outside contracted companies. You will have to deal with them directly and not your local police department. They will not be able to do anything for you, other than tell you the same. Berkeley is a very HARSH parking enforcement city. That's why I stay out of there if I can.
 
that sucks, I'd fight that one.

I've gotten 3 for the damn street sweeper :mad
 
what really gets me is that they ticket you whether they street clean or not.

at my gf's old address there were 'no parking' signs for street cleaning 6 nights a week!! there was some broken glass on the street that stayed there for at least a month before being cleaned, but that didn't stop them from ticketing people 6 nights a week. :mad
 
That is why there was a big hoopla when that meter maid bitch got shot to death a while back. Bitch deserved it and so did her family, get a real job you bitches!
 
Is there a garage at the end of the driveway? If so, probably best to park it in there.

If not, you should probably get one of those SmartCars when they hit the US.
 
gar1013 said:
Is there a garage at the end of the driveway? If so, probably best to park it in there.

If not, you should probably get one of those SmartCars when they hit the US.
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there is a garage, but it's tiny and the driveway slopes downward at such an angle that- while it may be possible to get a car INTO the garage (while scraping the shit out of the bottom)- it certainly would not be possible to get it back out without some kind of towing device. so no, we don't park in the garage. i always park in the driveway and pull the car up as far as possible without bottoming out and getting stuck. :p

as i said, it's not our fault the driveway was designed this way... i am soo fighting this ticket.
 
954Rider said:
That is why there was a big hoopla when that meter maid bitch got shot to death a while back. Bitch deserved it and so did her family, get a real job you bitches!
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Did someones account get hijacked? You posts have gotten very strange of late.
 
If you can't fit in the driveway, you shouldn't park there. It has noting to do with how the driveway was designed. You chose to block the sidewalk and you got cited. I followed a guy home once, he was in an electric wheelchair. He had to drive in the street because the sidewalks were impassable.

In most cases, older houses were designed for one car and it was kept in the garage. Of course, back then, cars had a much higher ground clearance too. The driveway was designed to get you from the street to the garage. Now everyone uses their garage for storage or living space and parks on the street or on the driveway.

You chose to live in a house with a short driveway and chose to park a car there that did not fin in your available driveway space. If you were parked obstructing the sidewalk, you were in violation. You have no right to block the sidewalk, no matter how you cut it.

Why don't you consider the people that may need to use the sidewalk and quit being such a selfish prick?
 
If you live in SF it is illegal to park in your driveway, as far as I understand it has to do with the fire code. Why it makes a difference if the car is in the garage or not is beyond me... it's just one of those silly things I learned in traffic school... Oh by the way those cars parked in the middle of the street for church... Illegal, Those cars parked 1/2 way on the sidewalk on 19th ave... illegal (next time I get a sidewalk ticket on my bike those people on 19th are bummin, $100 a shot, for all of them... I'll take a day off work, a camera, we'll see how that goes over).


(acct hijack by 07chuck)
 
motorman4life said:
If you were parked obstructing the sidewalk, you were in violation. You have no right to block the sidewalk, no matter how you cut it.
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did you read the part where i said i was NOT cited for blocking the sidewalk? or are all citations interchangeable these days? if someone's meter expires and you cite them with blocking a loading zone instead just for the hell of it is that ok too?

Why don't you consider the people that may need to use the sidewalk and quit being such a selfish prick?
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it wouldn't make much difference, as almost every driveway on my block is this way, and everyone parks their cars blocking the sidewalk. in the unlikely situation that someone goes into the street to get around one of my neighbors' cars and then gets back on the sidewalk (prior to reaching the car of the neighbor on the opposite side which is also blocking the sidewalk), then yes they would be blocked by my car. it's a wide street however, so luckily they wouldn't have much trouble going around. but that's not the issue here, is it?

all i'm asking is, can you be cited for obstructing street cleaning when all 4 wheels of the car are off the street and only the bumper portrudes?

i've never been cited for blocking the sidewalk, nor have any of my neighbors to my knowledge.
 
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Berkeley parking enforcement are Nazi's. I work for UC Berkeley and they ticket me (my state issued work van) on campus if they don't like where I park. Short of cops ticketing cops everybody is fair game there.
 
I have a friend who got threatened with a $5000/day fine for parking in his front yard in Berkeley (near North Berkeley BART). He had been doing it since he moved here in 1972. Berkeley really doesn't like cars.
 
It's the only place I have seen someone paint the word "driving" on a stop sign. So it now says "STOP DRIVING"
 
Junkie said:
I have a friend who got threatened with a $5000/day fine for parking in his front yard in Berkeley (near North Berkeley BART). He had been doing it since he moved here in 1972. Berkeley really doesn't like cars.
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Have you explained to him that parking in your front yard is only acceptable out in the country? If you live on a dirt road and there's no room in the carport, the park in the front yard.
 
dissolvedego said:
all i'm asking is, can you be cited for obstructing street cleaning when all 4 wheels of the car are off the street and only the bumper portrudes?
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Why would you think your car stops at the wheels? The bumper is part of your car. Does that mean if I hit things that stick off your car like your mirrors, your bumper, or your Garfield tail sticking out of your trunk it does not count as an accident?

The whole car has to be off the street, not just the wheels.

And just because everybody blocks the sidewalk, you have the right to? come on, think for yourself.
 
gar1013 said:
Have you explained to him that parking in your front yard is only acceptable out in the country? If you live on a dirt road and there's no room in the carport, the park in the front yard.
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ever been to east san jo or do you ever venture out of your gated condo community? :hand
some of your statements sound so elitist..:rolleyes
oh and by the way i'm a fricken hillbilly and we park our stills on the front yard...
 
Beetlejuice said:
ever been to east san jo or do you ever venture out of your gated condo community? :hand
some of your statements sound so elitist..:rolleyes
oh and by the way i'm a fricken hillbilly and we park our stills on the front yard...
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gated condo? Come to my fucking neighborhood sometime. I WISH it was a gated community.

I also avoid ALL of San Jose.

Fact of the matter is, parking your car in your front yard is something you expect to see in rural areas, not in the burbs or a city.

You obviously don't know much about stills either -- you're supposed to put them out in the woods where nobody will notice the distilling going on.
 
Go to south Florida (Ft.Lauderdale/Miami) and you will see alot of cars parked in the front yard on the grass. There they have no curbs so you just go from street to grass with nothing in the way.
 
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