Well, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't buy condoning, explaining away or otherwise apologizing for selective enforcement of the law. Why bother having a law if you just going to look the other way? If you've been parking "in the same space for years", my guess is you would notice it suddenly now has green lines and a big sign that says electric vehicles only or pay $50. But since you're in CA I doubt you've seen a Raleigh PEV parking space. They're pretty hard to miss (unless you decide to be a scofflaw).
And yes, people frequently go to the trouble to put up counterfeit signs & dream up ficticious ordinance numbers to promote their nutty agendas like electric cars. If that's the mindset of our local police force, well then we have bigger issues.
Locally, we all know how frequently ICEing occurs. I'd like to know how many tickets have been written against it so far, after being on the books for what, six months now? My guess: zero.
davewill said:
Atebit said:
I guess I don't get it. The sign clearly states the ordanance number & fine, so what else is there to "hear of"? What, did he think you made the sign & hung it there yourself?
Sounds like laziness to me...he could sit there for a while & chill while waiting to supposedly issue a warning, instead of writing a ticket & getting back to work.
Lance, did you say you know people on the City Council...?
That may all be true, although it's actually correct for the officer to not simply take the sign as gospel. The sign may be posted, but the law not valid, or not in force yet. In many places, such signs are placed by private parties, not government. That said, he could have called in and gotten verification of the ordinance.
Also, when signs/laws are new, local police will often be lenient. If someone has parked in the same lot for years and suddenly there's a new sign, it's easy to overlook it. Personally, this doesn't sound like such a case, though, and I would have thought that parking in two spots would have been sufficient evidence that the driver was simply contemptuous of the EV spots.