In all parking ticket claims, it’s your word against the city. Who do you think wins?
In a study done by University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and New York University (NYU), 85% of cars are towed illegally. The incentive for the city is massive and the incentive for the Tow Company for the area is even greater.
Some tech startups are trying to help consumers fight parking tickets which cities are suing to keep their parking ticket scam running smoothly. Cities are not prepared to eliminate a huge source of income.
In cities like Chicago, Tow Companies have been sued with receiving kickbacks. In Los Angeles, unwritten rules litter the streets without a car owner’s knowledge.
“When added up, about 85% of cars towed is done so illegally,” sad UCLA professor Tim O’Hare. “People get double ticketed, so they don’t know they reached the tow limit, which is five tickets in Los Angeles County. We have many cases of parking maids not putting the ticket under a person’s windshield wiper. Our favorite is when a ticket is written up for ‘anonymous.’ That’s when the ticket is for anything the parking patrol wants it to be.
“And try to protest any of these, they make it fucking impossible on purpose.”
Los Angles generated $5 billion in tickets last year, up 50% from 2003. While not posted, you must drive your car, at least, one mile every 72 hours in a city where traffic is notoriously bad.
In 2017, Los Angeles residents will be able to vote on new parking ticking reforms. For the rest of the country, good luck.
Many cities have parking ticket and tow quotas to meet, so according to the study, don’t be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
You can protest a ticket, but once a car is towed, you must pay the money for your car before you can protest the parking ticket. When you finally get the chance to protest the ticket, an image of your car is all they need. The photo does not need to show a Loading Zone if your car is in a loading zone; it does not need to show Street Cleaning times if your car is parked during that time. With your license plate in the photo is all the need.
Being ticketed twice for the same parking violation occurs in every 1 out of 3 tickets in Los Angeles.
The only way to fix the problem of the city stealing your car for ransom is to vote for people whose platform is to loosen parking restrictions. Those politicians might be hard to find, might be impossible, but organizations across the country wish to add this to local political platforms.
The parking ticket plague across America can also mean more than money. In many states, you can be arrested for not paying parking tickets. Over 150,00 are in jail for unpaid parking tickets. This practice also happens to be disproportionally placed on minorities.
If you don’t have the money to pay, you are jailed. While jailed, it’s rather difficult to attend your job.
Jail seems like a harsh punishment for the government stealing your car.