RSS 2.0 FeedThis Is A Crime?!
by Brad WarbianyWow… So today, I decided to meet my wife at the in-laws, where parking is always at a premium. I arrive, unload the truck, and right as I’m about to start searching for a parking space, a guy asks if I mind giving his car a jumpstart. No problem, of course, and it’s especially nice because he was parked in a prime location, and he was about to leave.
So I drive over there, park nose-to-nose with him (he’s parallel parked at the front of a line of cars), and we get his car started. He pulls out, I pull in, and all is well. Of course, now I’m facing the “wrong” direction in my parking space.
I get into the house, and the wife & family ask why I’m parked the wrong way… “Oh, I gave that guy a jump, and I was already facing that way, so I pulled in.” We head off for dinner, and get back, and they tell me “You need to move your truck, or you’re gonna get a ticket!”
A ticket? For parking on the “wrong” side of the street? On a dead-end street where the only real traffic is people driving around at 3 mph looking for parking spots?!
Yep, it’s illegal. It hurts nobody, and in the grand scheme of things, it’s absolutely meaningless and pointless to make it a law that you park one direction or another. Yet my whole family is looking like me as if I’m crazy for not “getting it”. Because it’s the “law”, and that’s what you’re “supposed” to do. The nice man in the blue uniform has a gun, and if you don’t snap to attention and follow orders, he’s going to reach into your wallet and take your stuff.
Ridiculous. Luckily, I went over to my truck, and didn’t find a ticket there. But can anyone find a justification for this other than revenue enhancement? Is Newport Beach so crime-free that cops really have time to devote to this?
Lol. Reminds me of something my friend told me. He was arguing with someone who was trying to become a cop about drug legalization. The cop-wannabe said that he couldn’t possibly be for drug legalization because, get this, drugs are illegal. We have a huge majority of Americans who equate legality with morality. They believe everything government does is affirmed by common sense and logic. The very aspect of questioning government seems to make you a kook. Ergo, Ron Paul. I’m starting to actually not only understand but to feel what the Revolutionaries must have felt.
Comment by somebody — August 2, 2007 @ 10:46 pmMy mom told me once that my uncle got a ticket for parking facing “the wrong way”.
I can understand that it might imply that you were breaking a law by driving the wrong way down a street… but even still, it’s silly.
Comment by Jess — August 2, 2007 @ 10:52 pmmy boyfriend got a ticket while parked in front of our house for “facing incoming traffic.” the cop followed him home AFTER pulling him over ON A BIKE because they were supposedly looking for someone. it was a forty dollar ticket.
real nice.
Comment by whitney — August 2, 2007 @ 11:09 pmsomebody,
That’s pretty funny… My mother-in-law told me “You’re such a revolutionary!”
And my wife, when I questioned her as to whether I’d done anything wrong, kept going back to the justification that “it’s the law”.
But hey, I should probably cut them some slack. They’re native Californians…
Comment by Brad Warbiany — August 3, 2007 @ 12:07 amYour red reflectors face rearwards.
In some situations (imagine a really dark rainy night) another driver seeing your parked car may get confused as to where the road is and which side of the road s/he is on. If you’re in the process of moving into or pulling away from you parking spot may result in adverse reactions from the unexpected travel direction.
Comment by Howard — August 3, 2007 @ 1:17 amGood point Howard. I’m sure if that were the case, then he would have not parked facing the other way.
However, given that it was for a short duration, in a dead end street, in broad daylight, your explanation doesn’t apply.
More importantly, why should it be a crime to park the wrong way ?
Comment by Jono — August 3, 2007 @ 1:51 amI wonder if it might be the fault of single policy government at work. Maybe the law, applying in all situations, is that you can’t park backwards (and there might actually be a safety or efficiency argument behind the policy). Unfortunately, without having the ability to adjust the law for different circumstances, it is illegal to park backwards, even if there is no safety or efficiency argument present. Then again, this could just be another situation where the cop was probably an uptight jerk.
I have a slightly similar story from when I was in college. A buddy needed to pull up close to the building to move stuff and because the school didn’t have a 15 minute parking spot, he pulled into a handicap space. As the college rent-a-cop pointed out, it was illegal to park in a handicap spot, even though that side of the building was not even handicap accessible. (Actually, that was the only reason the spot was available in the fist place; the intended users couldn’t get in the building and went around to the other side to park.) As it turned out, it was around 1 am so we just laughed at the guy, thankfully having just finished the last load before moving the car to an open spot away from the building.
Comment by trumpetbob15 — August 3, 2007 @ 3:10 amI might be wrong about this, but in Arizona you only have the one license plate on the back. They don’t like you to back into a space, otherwise they can’t see your tags. Now that is stupid. Just one the many reasons I’m glad I don’t live there anymore.
Comment by Aimee — August 3, 2007 @ 8:56 amI was ticketed for that very offence about 10 years ago. I also made the mistake of driving alone in the carpool lane. When I explained to my coworkers why I was late for work, you would have thought I kicked a puppy!
Comment by Stephen Littau — August 3, 2007 @ 2:01 pmBrad,
Tony C. did this same thing one summer in front of my place on Stadium. A cop saw him and stopped to talk to him about it. The reason given then was that you have to illegally cross the center line into oncoming traffic both pulling into and out of the spot, with pulling out of the spot being the more dangerous. It makes sense, if you take into account that in the U.S. the driver’s side would be at the curb, and your view would be obstructed by vehicles in from of you.
Aimee,
I have never heard of such a thing here in AZ. I back into spaces all the time. As a matter of fact, some streets in Tucson have back-in only spots for pedestrian and bicycle safety.
Comment by Nick M — August 3, 2007 @ 2:16 pmTo paraphrase John Bender, hey, how come Brad gets to park facing the wrong way? If he parks facing the wrong way, we’ll all park facing the wrong way, it’ll be anarchy!
Comment by Wulf — August 4, 2007 @ 2:45 pm