- SF residents claim they are ticketed for parking in their own driveways.
- Violations appear very minor; residents say they don’t block access.
- Lawyer Steve Lehto cites due process and Sixth Amendment concerns.
Parking tickets are a familiar annoyance in any city, but for some San Francisco residents, the frustration isn’t coming from parking in the wrong place; it’s from parking in exactly the right one. These aren’t folks upset with a new daylighting system or street parking system that changed their routine. Instead, they claim they’re legally parking in their own driveways and still getting tickets.
What’s adding to the confusion is that these tickets aren’t the result of a new parking policy or increased enforcement. Instead, they’re triggered by neighborhood reports. The city isn’t actively patrolling for this type of violation; it’s simply responding to complaints submitted by locals.
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The system in place in San Francisco is called 311, and it provides citizens with a non-emergency system to report illegal activity. In this case, the city says it’s not targeting folks but rather responding to these 311 calls.
Driveways Under Scrutiny
According to NBC, Mission Bay residents are reportedly getting tickets, many over $100 each, for parking illegally. It’s not as if they’re just parking hither and thither like a heavy-duty truck bro who wants to assert dominance in a way he can’t in any other way than parking across multiple spaces. These folks in California are parking in their own driveways.
How do they end up with tickets? They’re reportedly blocking the sidewalk to enough of a degree that their parking job is technically illegal. Based on the video obtained by NBC, that degree is comical. “There’s like 10 feet of open space. It’s not causing a problem for anyone with accessibility issues,” said David Chen, a local resident. “It’s literally somebody making themselves feel good by submitting it, trolling us, getting us tickets.”
Some think it’s someone who recently moved into the neighborhood. Others care mostly about how the tickets are rolling in. The residents say that whoever is submitting the photos is actually using the same photo multiple times. In fact, using the same photo over and over again is only one of the potential problems.
Legal Concerns Surface
Interestingly, lawyer and noted car guy Steve Lehto pointed out in his coverage that there are multiple issues with tickets like this. Not only are there questions about when and how the photos are taken, but the Sixth Amendment ensures a citizen’s right to confront their accuser.
Essentially, if the person taking the photo doesn’t show up to court, the ticket should get dropped. Only time will tell if someone asserts that right or if they continue to pay the tickets.