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The NYPD Was Ticketing Legally Parked Cars; Open Data Put an End to It

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Re: The NYPD Was Ticketing Legally Parked Cars; Open Data Put an End to It

#111

Post by tamana »

guelo wrote: post #51
thaumasiotes wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do? When you're collecting two million dollars a year from ticketing legally parked cars, at less than $200 per ticket, you're not making a minor one-time error. That's a systematic practice (or, depending on your point of view, a minor one-time error that happened to be repeated 10,000 times every year).

The rules of the system had changed and part of the system was unaware of the change. The system was not working as a whole to intentionally ticket legally parked vehicles. It was not systematic. And it's a clickbaity title. My comment is getting downvoted to oblivion because people don't know the definition of the word.

The system did not stop ticketing parkers after the law changed. The system was broken, causing systematic problems

Re: The NYPD Was Ticketing Legally Parked Cars; Open Data Put an End to It

#112

Post by michaelmrose »

klean92 wrote: post #37
rsp1984 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I respectfully disagree with you. Money has been taken from citizens by the authorities in an unlawful manner. Money has to be given back. I don't know what more to say about this matter. If I steal 200$ out of your pocket and you find out, my feeling is you would want your money back, not an apology and my heartfelt assurance that it won't happen again...

I am afraid it would cost $2M to try to pay back $1.7M... i think they should first spend their time and $$ in making sure they fix the issues going forward.

Nobody cares how much more it costs you to do the right thing after the fact. Example paying a parking meter.

Re: The NYPD Was Ticketing Legally Parked Cars; Open Data Put an End to It

#113

Post by throwaway2048 »

klean92 wrote: post #37
rsp1984 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I respectfully disagree with you. Money has been taken from citizens by the authorities in an unlawful manner. Money has to be given back. I don't know what more to say about this matter. If I steal 200$ out of your pocket and you find out, my feeling is you would want your money back, not an apology and my heartfelt assurance that it won't happen again...

I am afraid it would cost $2M to try to pay back $1.7M... i think they should first spend their time and $$ in making sure they fix the issues going forward.

I wonder if they would accept this excuse after I "forgot" to pay a parking meter.

Re: The NYPD Was Ticketing Legally Parked Cars; Open Data Put an End to It

#114

Post by peterwwillis »

developer2 wrote: post #74
eggy wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is a very positive thing that the OP accomplished. And yes, I think the city should pay back for the wrongly issued parking tickets. The official admits there was an error and defines why it happened. This in itself opens the door for the wrongly ticketed parties to claim a refund, since their is the admission by the city official. Now, who's going to inform those wrongly-ticketed citizens? Certainly not t…

The city certainly won't come forward and dish out the cash voluntarily. It would take a class action to accomplish the task. We'll see in the coming weeks/months if such an action takes form.

This may be illegal under sovereign immunity, though they could attempt to sue a county or municipality.

In Florida, a long-contested issue over red light cameras resulted in a judgement that having their tickets contested in special City Hall hearings, rather than through state traffic laws, was illegal. If a similar case is happening here, they could attempt that lawsuit, and if they win, then attempt their class-action.

You also have to get around statute of limitations and notice of claim limits for new york, not to mention shared liability. Remember: New York City parking violation tickets can be disputed as defective without going to court. You can even request an online hearing! So a court may throw out any argument that a class-action lawsuit might claim that it was unreasonable for _all_ of those people to be unable to file a dispute.

Interestingly, I found this brochure on their website that mentions code 67 (pedestrian ramps), but does not at all mention the exception for ramps in the middle of the street with no sign or marked walkway. It should really have been updated after 2008: http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/finance/downloads/pdf/translation...

Re: The NYPD Was Ticketing Legally Parked Cars; Open Data Put an End to It

#115

Post by kika »

klean92 wrote: post #37
rsp1984 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I respectfully disagree with you. Money has been taken from citizens by the authorities in an unlawful manner. Money has to be given back. I don't know what more to say about this matter. If I steal 200$ out of your pocket and you find out, my feeling is you would want your money back, not an apology and my heartfelt assurance that it won't happen again...

I am afraid it would cost $2M to try to pay back $1.7M... i think they should first spend their time and $$ in making sure they fix the issues going forward.

If I steal $200 worth of booze from the store they will spend thousands if not tens of thousand to prosecute me. Using this logic they should just take my apology and let me go with the booze.

Re: The NYPD Was Ticketing Legally Parked Cars; Open Data Put an End to It

#116

Post by sokoloff »

sundvor wrote: post #96
thevibesman wrote: post #63

In 2011, I was given two parking tickets when legally parked in Boston. The first ticket was issued for parking in resident street parking without a permit. I was actually parked just after the sign delimiting the resident parking area[1]. I photographed where I was parked and sent in an appeal which was accepted. A month later, I was parked in the same non-resident street parking and I was issued a ticket for failin…

Nice. I'm just hoping you won't find out one day that they didn't forget in the form of an arrest warrant or something like that for failure to pay. (Disclaimer: I live in Melbourne, Australia, so that could just be the stuff of fiction for what I know).

MA will enforce unpaid fines with non-renewal of MA driver's license or vehicle registration. I don't know with which states MA has a reciprocity agreement for that. (And eventually, I think at 3 overdue tickets, your car is eligible for the boot.)

These are civil fines; no arrest warrant will be issued, but I also doubt that just because BPD stopped sending notices that they agree the ticket was bogus and have deleted it. Far more likely is they just stopped sending notices and the ticket is still active.

Re: The NYPD Was Ticketing Legally Parked Cars; Open Data Put an End to It

#117

Post by areyousure »

esbranson wrote: post #60
refurb wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. I appealed a parking ticket in SF one time and it was dismissed. I got a street cleaning ticket that said I parked on a Tuesday but the address on the ticket was on the Thursday street cleaning side. Just pointed that out in a letter and everything was dropped. However, my scenario is pretty straightforward. I'm guessing anything more complex is going to get denied. You can always appear in front of a judge.

No you can almost never appear in front of a judge. Random people from around town (who may not even be lawyers) that adjudicate administrative (extrajudicial) trials are not judges. That makes more sense when you realize that final appeals from these adjudicators' decisions go to the director of the agency.

I don't know how it works in SF, but after my final administrative hearing was denied in Oakland in exactly the way you describe, I filed an appeal in the county court, appeared before a real judge, and won: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10381103

Re: The NYPD Was Ticketing Legally Parked Cars; Open Data Put an End to It

#118

Post by colordrops »

An anecdot: when I lived in Manhattan in 2001, I parked near 61st and 1st, between two differing parking signs. I was clearly very close to one, and much further from another, by at least 50 yards. I got a ticket for illegal parking according to the further sign. Being a broke ex-dot-commer, I was furious, so I photographed and measured everything, and put together a seven page report.

After a long while, I got a response back from the responsible agency, which agreed that I was in compliance with the parking rules, and thus they would reduce the fine from $100 to $40. What??

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