In a word … yes.

Recently a friend of mine got a ticket issued to him from one of the numerous automated cameras strategically positioned at intersections around LA. Soon enough he was bombarded with aggressive and threatening letters outlining the exorbitant fines he was about to get slapped with if he didn’t pay the already absurd $480 ticket fine.

He came to me and wanted to know if the rumor that he could not pay this ticket was true.

The answer is simple, but specific. Yes, you can ignore the ticket IF you have ignored it the entire time. This is where it gets a little tricky, but keep reading because you’ll get it.

The way the courts look at these tickets in LA is that you can ignore it because you didn’t physically sign for the ticket. This means they can’t assume you’ve received it. Since they can’t be certain you’ve received it, they can’t punish you for not showing up in court or insist you pay it. Got to love our legal system.

The trick to ignoring these tickets is that you must completely ignore them. If you respond in any way, shape, or form you are now on the hook for the ticket because the court’s position hinges on the idea that you might not have received it. The second you respond to any correspondence you can no longer claim this. No matter how much then threaten you, ignore them.

They may send it to a collection agency. Ignore them. They may threated the fine will double or triple is size. Ignore them. They may claim it will go against your credit. Ignore them. It will NOT go against your credit. They are simply crying wolf and it will all eventually vanish like it never existed if you simply continue to ignore it.

One important note, please make sure your ticket is issued by Los Angeles county law enforcement. If it is issued anywhere else you might have to pay it. In this article I am specifically talking about the rules in LA county. If you are in Orange County or anywhere else in California different rules apply and you must familiarize yourself with those.

In the end, my friend never paid his ticket and saved himself a boatload of money. I know who’s buying the next time we go out for lunch.  

The myth of parking ticket quotas in Los Angeles has been around for years. I’ve always chalked up these rumors to disgruntled people who got ticketed and wanted an excuse (like me), but in Dennis Romero’s recent Los Angeles Weekly article he sites two Parking Enforcement officers who go on the record that ticket quotas in LA are real.

One officer requested anonymity while the other, Larry Randolph, pulled the veil back full monty style and claimed that it is a well known practice within the Los Angeles Parking Enforcement community that certain numbers are expected (eight tickets per hour). He specifically cites the granting or denial of overtime hours as being tied to meeting these established quotas.

If this is true someone is going to get in some serious trouble. First of all, quotas are illegal. Yes, they aren’t simply uncool. Secondly, any elected LA official supporting or giving the appearance of condoning this practice can definitely kiss his or her job goodbye because calling parking ticket quotas unpopular in LA is like calling Donald Sterling mildly offensive.

One of the most disturbing aspects of parking ticket quotas is that this essentially amounts to a regressive taxation on the masses. Many of these people are middle and lower income residents of Los Angeles that are the least capable of fighting unfair ticketing and also the most hurt my the expensive nature of these tickets.

No definitive proof is in, but if it turns out parking ticket quotas have existed in Los Angeles, my question is what will be done about it? Sure, someone’s going to lose their job, but that doesn’t help out all those people that received tickets.

I believe people that received questionable tickets, of however many years this quota system has been in use, deserve a review and possible reimbursement. I know this seems like a huge job and is a potentially very expensive penalty, but perhaps it will discourage this type of illegal behavior in the future. After all, doesn’t the LADOT use exorbitantly expensive tickets as their way to deter Los Angeleans from parking illegally? It only seems fair that an excessively harsh penalty should be used against them to discourage their own illegal activity if it turns out to be true. 

I got an email the other day inviting me to a meeting with the City of Santa Monica’s manager of City Traffic Engineers. Upon reading the email I immediately felt like I was a kid being called into the principle’s office. Was I in trouble? Did they hate my parking app? Had I violated some city ordinance by creating a Los Angeles parking app I was unaware of?

I ran it by a couple of friends and they seemed equally as perplexed. Maybe Park Safe LA had somehow ruffled some feathers in Santa Monica traffic and parking circles. I did take the occasional pot shot at the LADOT and different LA counties on Twitter and Facebook when I saw parking signs that made no sense like the fact that limos get special parking privileges when it comes to fire hydrant parking (see previous blog), but surely I couldn’t be in trouble for this. Could I?

I like to think that I don’t intimidate easy, but I definitely went into the Santa Monica City Hall conference room a little on guard. I’m not ashamed to say, I researched the Santa Monica manager of City Traffic Engineers and Santa Monica’s track record with parking issues and technology before arriving. I figured this was my best bet at being prepared for any potential pitfalls that lay ahead.

When I finally sat down with Sam Morrissey, the Santa Monica manager of City Traffic Engineers, I realized how my fears couldn’t have been further from the truth. Sam immediately put me at ease when he complimented me on creating Park Safe LA and expressed his desire to make parking less confusing in Santa Monica. He brought in a Transportation Engineer that focused on creating the signs I often poke fun of and one of the leads from their IT department. I was more than surprised.  I was impressed.

After picking my brain about future Park Safe LA app developments, Sam informed me of projects the city of Santa Monica was working on to help myself and other developers solve these problems The first thing they mentioned was open data sets they already had available and projects underway to make additional data accessible for developers.

Coming out of the Santa Monica City Hall meeting I was more motivated than ever to dig in and make Park Safe LA better than ever, to do a better job partnering with like minded individuals dedicated to solving these problems, and excited that their were ripples in the universe about a tiny app I created on my MacBook Pro in my apartment.

Meeting the people that actually design the parking signs we find so confusing and hearing their own frustrations of state and federal laws that tie their hands in terms of design, I felt naïve that I used to believe that they were almost intentionally trying to confuse us. The reality is that a lot of good people are working hard on these issues and I was lucky enough to find some new partners today.

I saw a fire hydrant the other day where the curb in front of it wasn’t marked with the customary red “No Parking” paint. The curb looked perfectly normal and inviting for my car. There was also no sign indicating I couldn’t park there. This is very odd for a city with a parking sign roughly every ten feet. The only thing that ran through my mind was “TRAP.”

This felt like some sort of evil plan hatched by the LA parking gods. It was a classic case of cheese left to lure in the mouse. Only I was the mouse and instead of cheese it was a beautiful and almost irresistible twelve feet of prime curb space in a neighborhood slammed with cars.

If the curb isn’t marked with red and there isn’t a sign telling me “No Parking,” I should be able to park here right?” I mean, they paint all the “No Parking” areas with red curbs in LA. Don’t they?

Lucky for me I relied on my default parking rule in LA.

If I’m not 110% positive I can park somewhere I don’t do it. No matter how enticing the parking spot looks.

After I wrapped up my meeting in the building across the street and had a second to hop on my computer and looked the official LADOT ruling on this suspicious parking spot. Legally, hydrant’s are always no parking spots in Los Angeles no matter if the city got around to painting the curb red or not. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they might leave you cheese and crackers next to the hydrant, but it doesn’t make parking there legal. Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) Sec. 87.02 states,

“No person shall stop, park or leave standing any vehicle on any Harbor Department roadway within fifteen (15) feet of any fire hydrant except when such vehicle is attended by a licensed operator or chauffeur seated in the front seat who can conveniently move such vehicle when necessary.”

Basically, don’t park near a fire hydrant under any circumstances, unless of course you’ve got a chauffeur. Huh? I truly love the fact that the LAMC specifically makes exceptions for chauffeurs … as in limos … as in rich douchebags get to park in front of hydrants and go for a stroll, while their limo driver waits in the car. Only in Hollywood does this make sense my friends. Only in Hollywood.

What was initially confusing to me about this parking spot was that the curb wasn’t marked in red like they usually are in LA when you can’t park somewhere. What is now confusing to me about Los Angeles is that the LADOT makes special fire hydrant parking exceptions for rich people in limos.

I guess if there is a fire the LADOT figure the guy in the limo can throw twenty-dollar bills on it to help put it out or at the very least can let the firemen stay at his Malibu bungalow on the beach recuperate after an exhausting day. You’ve got to appreciate the irony that people driving in stretch limos get special fire hydrant parking treatment in a city paid for on the backs of those driving in Honda Civics.