PITTSBURGH — A local dad took his son out for his birthday, but when he returned to his car, he had a parking ticket, even though he had paid to park.
Earle spoke with Alexander Cleary, who received the ticket after parking on the street across from the Children’s Museum on the North Side, where he visited with his wife and son.
Earle: What was your reaction when you got the ticket?
Cleary: I was pretty upset to be honest.
Cleary couldn’t believe he got a $55 ticket after parking on Children’s Way.
“This whole side of the street here on the left was full of cars parked one after the other,” Cleary said.
Cleary didn’t see any no parking signs on this side of the street, and the paid parking sign on the corner appears to point to the left, where Cleary parked.
“There’s a pay parking sign right there with an arrow pointing essentially where this road is and there’s no sign saying you can’t park,” he said.
Cleary showed the sign to Earle, who noticed it appeared to be slightly angled in the wrong direction, making it seem like it’s okay to park on the street in question.
Earle: That can be misleading. It probably needs to be turned a lot more this way, but it does appear that it’s pointing that way, the same way as the Children’s Museum sign.
Cleary: There’s absolutely an arrow to the left.
Cleary also saw the white lines on the road, which he assumed were for parking spaces, and in addition, other cars were already parked on the street.
“They were all parked within these lines here that are on the road, so any reasonable person would assume that parking is allowed,” Cleary said.
There is a turning lane sign on the other side of the street, but nothing to indicate that Cleary couldn’t park where he did.
He paid at the kiosk around the corner.
But when he returned, to his surprise, he found a ticket on his windshield, citing him for parking in a turning lane.
He took pictures of all the cars parked on the same street.
Cleary also found a Google map image of the street from last October, where the roadway is clearly marked as a turning lane. But at some point after that, when the road was paved, the markings were covered over and never repainted.
Cleary reached out to the parking authority, sent them all the pictures and evidence he had gathered, and figured it would be a slam-dunk case.
“I just assumed it was going to be a straightforward appeal, because obviously you know, I did this in good faith and so did the other 10 to 15 cars that were parked down here. A guy behind me had the same thing. I spoke to him when he was going back to his car, so actually it was obviously just a misunderstanding,” Cleary said.
But the Pittsburgh Parking Authority denied his appeal. He reached out to them to plead his case, but he said they were not receptive.
They told him they would send him more paperwork to appeal to court, but frustrated at that point, Cleary just decided to pay the fine.
He reached out to 11 Investigates to warn other drivers.
“I think it’s more than a little bit deceptive, and they’re able to operate what in my opinion feels like a honey trap or a scam to extort the residents of Pittsburgh, which I think is particularly frustrating, and in bad faith,” he said.
11 investigates discovered 48 no-parking tickets were issued on Children’s Way last year, and so far this year, there have been 27.
After Earle reached out to the executive director of the Pittsburgh Parking Authority, he had three brand new no parking signs installed on the street, so now it’s clearly marked.
He agreed that without any signs it was a bit confusing.
He also said he will have the city paint new road markings indicating that the roadway is a turning lane.
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