03/24/2013   English German

  Edition # 101  
San Francisco, 03-24-2013


Figure [1]: Happy times ten years ago: A parking ticket for 25 Dollars for parking on the sidewalk. Today, the same ticket is 110 Dollars.

Michael Over the last couple of years, San Francisco has heavily increased the fines imposed for illegal parking. As you can see in figure 1, back in 2002, I received a parking ticket for $25 when parking our car PERLMAN for an hour on the sidewalk in front of the house, because there were no parking spots available at the time. According to the new parking fee table from 2013, for the same infraction the city now assesses a fine of $110!

Other traffic violations carry more severe fines as well: Parking in a street cleaning zone while the street sweeper is coming through now costs $62. Parking at an expired meter? $72! And it gets really expensive at bus stops, where the city's traffic squad charges $267. It's commonly believed that it's okay to quickly halt at a bus stop and let a passenger out, but if a police officer takes notice and isn't busy chasing gansters, he will relentlessly issue a ticket to fill the city coffers.

Figure [2]: Only vehicles equipped with a disabled person placard may be parked in handicap parking spots. Others pay a fine of 966 Dollars.

And the jackpot is no doubt parking in a parking spot reserved for the disabled. That's almost a thousand dollars: $966. The same fine amount applies to people caught in those reserved parking spots with fake or "borrowed" placards. Ironically, placard abuse is rampant in the United States. Pay attention to what kind of people are occupying the reserved spots, and you'll find that they're often astonishingly quick on their feet. A while ago, I pondered the idea of building a website to expose these douchebags via their license plates. If I only had more time!

Some time ago, at the beach of Pacifica, we saw a dad with two kids park a car with a disabled placard in a handicap spot. Minutes later, he hauled a surfboard 600 feet to the beach, without any visible physical impairment. I wonder what he was suffering from?

RSS Feed
Mailing Liste
Impressum
Mike Schilli Monologues


Get announcements for new editions

New editions of this publication appear in somewhat random intervals. To receive a brief note when they're available in your mailbox (about once every two months on average), you can register your email on the 'usarundbrief' Google Groups list.

Your email address



All Editions:
2024 153 154 155
2023 148 149 150 151 152
2022 143 144 145 146 147
2021 138 139 140 141 142
2020 133 134 135 136 137
2019 129 130 131 132
2018 125 126 127 128
2017 120 121 122 123 124
2016 115 116 117 118 119
2015 111 112 113 114
2014 106 107 108 109 110
2013 101 102 103 104 105
2012 96 97 98 99 100
2011 91 92 93 94 95
2010 85 86 87 88 89 90
2009 79 80 81 82 83 84
2008 73 74 75 76 77 78
2007 66 67 68 69 70 71 72
2006 59 60 61 62 63 64 65
2005 54 55 56 57 58
2004 49 50 51 52 53
2003 43 44 45 46 47 48
2002 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
2001 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
2000 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
1999 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
1998 7 8 9 10 11 12
1997 1 2 3 4 5 6
1996 0

 

Send us a comment
We'd like to hear from you, please send us feedback if you want to comment on the content or have suggestions for future topics.

Simply write your your message into the text box below. If you'd like a response from us, please also leave your email. If you want to stay anonymous, simply put 'anonymous' into the email field. This way we'll get the message, but we have no way to respond to you.

Your email address


Message

 
Contact the authors
Latest update: 17-Aug-2013