Is This Worth a Ticket?

Hello,
I got a parking ticket today. It was a busy area because of an event taking place. I found a small space between two cars and thought I was lucky. I had to park at a slight angle with one wheel over the curb.

Here is a photo:
Https://goo.gl/wZkfA6

The ticket said: "parking a vehicle on the road other than parallel"

That's a $91 fine and i really think it's unfair. Don't people park with a wheel or two over the curb all the time in front of their houses?

Should i object it? What should i expect if my objection is rejected?

Thanks everyone.

closed Comments

  • +151

    Sorry but thats just a crap parking job, from the front you had plenty of room to park the car straight. Maybe take some time to practice parking.

    People may park with a wheel or two over the curb, but that would be parrallel, you parked at an angle. Suck it up princess and pay the fine

    • +43

      You should have been breathlyzed and drug tested with a parking job like that.

  • +5

    I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to the OP assuming the car in front left and a new one parked there.

    Regardless… you could've probably straighten up abit though… if you have room to get the car in initially, there should be enough room for very minor adjustments… just do those adjustments until your car is straighter is what I would've done.

    As such, just pay the fine… it's $91, and IMHO, you could've done a better park job.

  • +15

    I'd hope they'd send you a nice letter back letting you know that, whilst a nice thought, the nice letter doesn't count for diddly squat, it was an awful park, and pay the fine (please and thank you).

    • +7

      Don't get it deleted. Let it be. It's an interesting topic.

      Here is the specific Queensland law that is relevant to your situation:

      208 Parallel parking on a road (except in a median strip parking area)
      (1) A driver who parks on a road (except in a median strip parking area) must position the driver's vehicle in accordance with subsections (2) to (8)…
      (3) If the road is a two-way road, the driver must position the vehicle parallel, and as near as practicable, to the far left side of the road.

      Source: http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/qld/consol_reg/toumrr200…

  • Hahahahaha; good luck!

  • -2

    yeah, technically they can fine those carswhich park on the sidewalk, especially if they have on the footpath (as you cant park on footpath as you need to allow people to move on it, mainly applies to disable people and people with prams)

    however i rarely see people get fined (heaps of people do it on my street)

    if you have never been fined before
    you can try and right a letter explaining the situation
    but chances are you wont be able to get out of it

    Edit. Having a look at the pic, that's really bad sorry. Hopefully they didn't take a photo and you can try to argue.

    • +4

      Most council inspectors use ticketing machines that require the officer to take a photo as part of the process to ticket a vehicle. Usually take a photo of the vehicle's number plate, it makes sure there's no confusion when it gets objected.
      It sounds mean but I'm sure the council worker who ticketed the op was laughing when they saw that effort.

  • +4

    If that was my lawn ..you would have to change a tyre.

  • +19

    This is the type of parking when someone needs a "you suck at parking" card.

  • +18

    lol @ the bloke in the van behind. "Is this **** for real?"

    • +10

      Would you be fine with people parking on your front lawn? Its not obstructing traffic, other cars, pedestrians and its not hurting anyone right?

      Terrible parking and terrible excuse. Imagine if everyone parked that like 'because the space was small'. If the space is small, then move on, the space is for small cars.

      Apparently a lot of people here are hurt.

      Appears only your feelings are hurt, truth hurts.

  • +16

    Nothing against op but … That parking … ! lol!!! :"D

      • +11

        So you parked like that knowing inspectors would be around?
        you car has to be parked parallel to the curb, laws are pretty clear in every state, your car wasn't parallel, hence the ticket.

  • Huh. So does that mean a smart car can't park nose-to-kerb into a super small spot?

    There goes their sole selling point…

    • Motorbikes dont park parallel. Maybe you'll be fine doing it on a smart.

  • +14

    Slight? Our versions of slight differ significantly.

  • +21

    "You guys are cruel. How can i delete the post? Lol""

    lmao..

  • +10

    Sorry, but that is some of the worst parking that I have ever seen.

    And I used to live and drive in South America :-)

    $91 is cheap!

  • -7

    Is this pic legit and are you serious? Just bump the car in front and behind you and make room or don't park there if you cannot fit, is another option. Unsure why you would question if it's ok? Am i wrong or is part of the rear of your car on the grass? Blame who ever taught you to parallel park, if you think this is ok. Good for a laugh though..in a nice way!

    • +4

      You're joking with the "Just bump the car in front and behind you and make room" right?
      The only option here was don't park there, clearly too small for that car to fit.

  • i feel better about my parking abilities.

    But seriously I have seen people mounting the Kerb in narrow streets but clearly this is not the case and clearly no one else did that.

    Imagine if everyone started just parking on other peoples lawn!

  • +2

    OP, the van behind you is a d!@#. he could have moved a little but he's been sitting there this whole time!

  • lol! good one

    edit:
    BTW, cars with wheels on the nature strip out the front of homes park parallel to the gutter… And you can't do it on all streets, only narrow ones with sloped gutters

  • +7

    I don't think a reasonable person (or parking inspector, or judge) would agree that you are parallel parked. The spot was clearly too small and you shouldn't have parked there. Pay the fine.

  • Jubba- do you really need to ask if I meant hit the car behind and in front of him? I stated the person could simply have chosen to not park there if they couldn't do so in the space given. Crazy enough he parked as he did. The way he parked, who knows what he was thinking. It was a little joke is all.

    • +4

      Jubba? Me?
      I didn't do anything bad this time.

  • -4

    What the? My apoligies Jubba. Replying to bercilak. I have no idea why or how my brain did that. My bad. I am very sorry Jubba. Hope you will forgive me? A big oops!:(

    • haha! thats fine!

  • +8

    In short, yes, you well and truly earned the ticket. It's not as though it was just 'slightly' over the kerb even. If there wasn't room straighten up a lot more than that you should never have parked there.

    As an aside, you DO realise you'd have failed a drivers license test with a park like that?

  • Is it a council parking ticket?

    Anyway if the front car moved I would have assumed you would jump back in and correct the mess you have taken a pic of.

    If its not a council ticket then you have a fairly good chance of tossing it away.

  • +4

    If it makes you feel any better, the Parking Inspector just filled his monthly Bingo Card

  • +6

    I think your oacking is pretty good, if it were a 45 degree area.

  • Do you really have to ask?

  • Try practising your reverse parallel parking in a quiet neighbourhood! Back to school!

  • +4

    Hey OP, your car isn't parked straight.

  • +13

    Whenever these posts pop up, I am always intrigued by the fact that the OP simply expects everyone to jump on their bandwagon, and becomes extremely defensive when people validly shit on their claims.

    If your mind is made, some randoms on the internet aren't going to change it.

    Talking about cruel, people being "hard on you"? Grow the (profanity) up.

  • Isn't there a minimum distance required between vehicles? Of memory there needs to be at least 30/50cm clearance on either end between vehicles? Even if the OP managed to park parallel they may still have got fined for not allowing correct clearance. I could be wrong and maybe I was told that to make sure I allowed enough space when parking but seems legit to me!

    • +1

      Believe it or not the legal minimum distance is 1m!

      • +3

        yeah i remember that episode of Ripley's

      • I thought it was 1m but thought nah thats too much space! That's even worse then!

  • +1

    I've just been to Rome and by their standards, your parking is perfect. If I knew how to post pics here, I'd show you some examples.

  • +2
    • That's Paris though…

      As said by James May "If there is a place for your car in France you put your car in that space."

  • +1

    Thank you Jubba. Glad u can laugh it off…

  • Google the council and look up their policy to get the fine reviewed and ask for the fine to be to changed it to written warning. If it's your first fine they often will left you off.
    Edit: don't include that pic!

  • +3

    Your parking is very bad .. Just pay the fine

  • +4

    AND it's a camry driver !

  • -1

    Poor OP.

  • +4

    Maybe in future you can get your parking antics crowd funded. E.g. for $91 pledged you will do one outrageously bad park and post pictures. LOL.

  • I saw you photo and am laughing so hard. Thought I was a bad reverse parallel park driver but seems like you've beat me to it. I was going to come to your defence until I saw the pic. It's a shame as there seems to be enough space in front to go forward and straighten more, I doubt you'd be fined had the car appeared to look a bit straighter. It did look like it was ready to take off somewhere. As for people parking in private roads with the wheel on the kerb - you should see my street. Where there are so many cars per family, not enough off street parking in their driveways, cars are not only parked with half the body and wheels on the kerb and grass verge, there are cars that are completely on the nature strip as they don't want to be swiped by some drunk. I have no problems with that whatsoever as the saying goes, the law is an ass. If the car is not about to kill someone parked on the strip (except kill the grass) and it makes the road wider and safer to drive on why not. Till now, we have never had a case of parking inspectors fining the residents for parking on the nature strip abounding their property, and this has been happening since forever. When 2 cars are parked on the road directly parallel to each other it leaves so little space for passing traffic, it is in itself a hazard. So much less clutter when the cars are on the strip as long as it's not on someone else's. Just my opinion.

    • Thanks for the reasonable response unlike most of the other people on here. But you missed my reply in which I indicated that the car in front of me left and another car parked there. The space was much smaller. I still had a chance to staighten it up a bit but that would have made it harder for the cars in front and behind me to get out. I just wanted to make it safer and easier on everybody by leaving the car like that.
      Also the car wasn't outside anyone's property as some people thought.

  • I thought I was rubbish at parallel parking but my god how did you get out of the car, look at how you parked and think yes that is well parked.

  • Mr Bean could park his Mini Minor within any gap - but that was London.

    • Yeah.
      I lived in london for a few months recently…
      …never had any parking problems.

  • I think you could definitely get out of the fine, as long as you have sign nearby saying "90' parking. Rear to kerb".

    • Do you mean "rear on kerb"

  • LOL!!! Had to go back to post revisions to get the link to the image! Definite have my vote for worst parking I've seen this year.
    EDIT: If your dash cam recorded the parking inspector, you may check if they took a photo or not.

  • +6

    Since OP deleted his original post, here's what it was for the curious ones:

    Hello,
    I got a parking ticket today. It was a busy area because of an event taking place. I found a small space between two cars and thought I was lucky. I had to park at a slight angle with one wheel over the curb.

    Here is a photo:
    http://i1322.photobucket.com/albums/u569/monier20/16E72A9A-0…

    The ticket said: "parking a vehicle on the road other than parallel"

    That's a $91 fine and i really think it's unfair. Don't people park with a wheel or two over the curb all the time in front of their houses?

    Should i object it? What should i expect if my objection is rejected?

    Thanks everyone.

      • +17

        Yea I could do that or clicking on Revisions in the bright orange bar.

        Your method is just as bad as your parking.

      • +2

        There is a revision history for every post.

        Talk to a mod if you would like the post deleted.

        Otherwise if it is really bothering you just forget about ozbargain for a week or something.

        • -1

          Nah, it's cool. Since i already got the answer i was looking for, i just wanted people to go enjoy their weekend instead of wasting more time on this post. But be my guests guys and make this post your plan for the weekend.

  • Comments have been closed, thanks

Login or Join to leave a comment