7/14/2008

not logical

I'd say that probably 3 or 4 times per year I get some type of parking citation for parking in a disabled parking stall--even with my properly displayed placard. It happened again this morning, only this time I was parked in the stall adjacent to the disabled parking stall because the stall was already taken by another car. Due to construction, there are only two disabled stalls for the entire Humanities area of UCI which has four mid-rise buildings of offices and dozens of classrooms. I got to campus at 8:55am and both spots were already taken. [I should note that there are 5 disabled stalls on the FAR end of this parking lot that are not close to ANY buildings (they are adjacent to an access road and a park). These stalls are so far away that they aren't even visible from the pathway leading to the Humanities buildings. In the past when I've complained about the number of disabled stalls--suggesting that it may not be legal to have so few spaces, those out-of-the-way spaces have been pointed out to me. I don't consider them accessible and I would suppose that no one else does either given that they are always empty.]

So I wrote a friendly email to the UCI Parking Office explaining the situation and asking that they stripe more stalls during the construction given that we are all struggling to use two stalls and many of us really _need_ the extra footprint of the larger stall to safely enter/exit our vehicles.

The only response I received was a terse email saying that I would have to go through the regular citation appeal process if I want to 'contest' my citation from this morning.

So I ask, is it logical that because I was mistakenly cited this morning that I have to go through the time and trouble to appeal this parking ticket? I mean, of course we all make mistakes and I try to have a good sense of humor about these types of inconveniences, but I'm just not feeling particularly patient today.
/whine
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8 comments:

amelia said...

that's ridiculous. i say if they don't waive the citation, you make a complaint somehow. to the ombudsman maybe? i dunno what the procedure is, but it seems patently obvious to me that this is not okay.

i have my own peeve with the parking office at the moment--namely that there's a dead space of two weeks between the summer permit expiring and the fall permit beginning. 'most students are gone then.' except the ones who aren't. grrr...

good luck.

3:59 PM
sarah k. said...

Can you just show up at the parking office in a mini-skirt?

4:27 PM
littlemissattitude said...

Of course it isn't logical.

I went through the same thing when I was attending Fresno City College, only it had to do with a parking ticket issued because I supposedly had an expired parking permit.

I did have an expired parking ticket on my windshield...in fact there were two or three of them on there. But I also had a day permit prominently displayed on my dashboard, purchased from the closest vending machine that morning.

I took the ticket and the (dated) parking permit into the campus police department that afternoon and showed them to the officer on duty. He looked at it, said, yes the ticket was issued in error. But I had to go through the whole process to contest it by mail because they don't handle their own tickets.

Excuse me? They write them, but the don't "handle" them? I thought that was pretty ridiculous, as well. I did contest it, and I didn't have to pay the ticket, but I was out the time, copying costs (to make a copy of the day permit), and postage it cost to prepare and mail the documents. All when it could have been taken care of in a minute and a half in the office if they would "handle" their own business instead of farming it out.

Sorry for the rant, but it's been a long day, and it isn't even 5 p.m. :)

4:50 PM
jana said...

sarahk:
I'm wearing a rather short skirt today, so I was tempted to do that. Of course it might be far more effective to go into their office legless.

But that would mean taking off the leg, changing my clothes (to ones I'd wear with just one leg), driving over to the parking office, making an "appearance," etc. In the end it would be nearly an hour of my time for the performance. And I'm not sure that I'd end up getting any more disabled parking stalls striped for my effort.

Gah.

LMA: I feel your pain. One tip: I've started taking pics with a dig camera--rather than copying--and emailing them for my appeals (can you believe that this happens often enough that I have a 'system'!), which tends to take far less time than a trip to kinko's. You might try this in the future if needed.

Amelia: I know someone with a spare Visitor's Pass. Drop me a line and maybe you can borrow hers during your 2 weeks (dumb UCI parking policies).

5:26 PM
sarah k. said...

In my first draft of the comment, I had actually tried to suggest that you show up without your leg, but I was worried that I would be insensitive, and since you don't really know me (to be remedied soon...) you might not read the mirth in the comment. I still get worked up thinking about your recent airport debacle.

6:54 PM
jana said...

sarahk:
can't wait to remedy the "knowing you" thing. :)

I won't deny that I "perform" my disability as needed to get accommodations, services, etc, but today I wasn't in the mood. I guess I've just been feeling so pleased to be feeling better and getting on with my life, that getting that ticket for something so inane just reinforced how vulnerable I feel in the face of bureaucracy or in a situation where my need for an accommodation is being ignored or denied (as with TSA).

I'm also kind of annoyed with myself for even having to drive to campus in the first place, because I really would rather be biking. But my leg just isn't healed enough yet to make biking that far (completely across the campus and then some) a possibility. Sigh.

10:20 PM
C. L. Hanson said...

It's possible the email you got was an auto-reply. Or perhaps the person who sent it has to reply to a lot of these with a standard form reply and didn't read your message carefully enough to see that it didn't apply in your case.

I'd say go and contest it, and that way you're sure to get the attention of a human. Then you'll have the opportunity to make your other suggestion (or ask the people there precisely whom you should be directing your suggestion to).

2:40 AM
Vajra said...

1. Received parking citation (fix-it ticket) for not having front parking license displayed (condition in effect for >five years, with no prior tickets);
2. Spent several hours goingto various body shops and hardware stores to find specialized bracket to display license (the original issue);
3. Went to DMV, waited in line to get someone to sign off on the "repair";
4. Mailed proof of change along w/money for fine;
5. Canceled check marked "payment received;
6. Received "reminder" that my payment was X$, w/instruction to ignore if correction had been made;
7. Received letter notifying of nonpayment, increasing fine to $95.00;
8. Sent copies of "proof" and canceled check;
9. Received letter stating that additional penalties would be incurred for nonpayment and not response;
10. Went to parking authority with proof, etc.;
11. Received excuse that "something was wrong with their computer": Yeah, could be true...

9:37 AM

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