How would you interpret this parking sign?

[Pete from Boston]

Many parking rules are posted with "Except Sundays" for one main reason: the parking enforcement people don't work on Sundays.  Therefore, any regulation on the sign (along with its ambiguities) is essentially irrelevant that day.  That is always my first assumption when seeing those words.

"No parking anytime" is usually reserved for places where parking poses an obvious operational or safety threats, like a fire zone, crosswalk, tight corner, etc.  I agree that it should not be used when it doesn't mean "no parking ever."

I also agree that it should never be assumed that the person writing the ticket knew the rule or read the sign or used common sense.  It's much less rare than it should be that people get meter violation tickets with time on the meter and the like.  It's not for nothing that there are significant amounts of personnel devoted to hearing parking violation appeals.

In any case, it could be worse (apologies for the repost, but it seemed relevant):

[1995hoo]

....

I also agree that it should never be assumed that the person writing the ticket knew the rule or read the sign or used common sense. ....

Absolutely true. The following are all examples of that, and they underscore why I'm cynical about DC traffic enforcement even though I've only gotten one DC parking ticket (back in 1990 or 1991).

Last month there was a story about how DC's ticket-writers didn't know the rules applicable to certain parking meters that will at some point be (but are not yet!) restricted for use by vehicles with handicapped permits: http://wtop.com/ticketbuster/2015/02/red-top-meters-confuse-ticket-writers/


Then there were the ones where there was no sign prohibiting rush-hour parking, but a ticket was written anyway (in the first case, a sign with the appropriate prohibition was later posted):

http://wtop.com/news/2014/06/conflicting-parking-signs-in-dc-sorry-youre-still-guilty-videos/

http://wtop.com/ticketbuster/2014/05/ticketbuster-ddot-issues-incorrect-rush-hour-ticket-stands-by-decision/


Some people got tickets for things that weren't against the law in the District (warning, a video may play automatically):

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/2015/02/16/tickets-inspection-call-for-action/23514025/

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/2015/02/12/dc-parking-tickets-wrongly-illegal-refunds-bridge-dmv/23306697/


Then you had the people who live on a block where it's illegal to park on the south side except on street-cleaning days, so they parked there on street-cleaning day and were given $100 tickets: http://www.tbd.com/blogs/tbd-on-foot/2012/03/street-sweeping-season-begins-with-a-block-full-of-bogus-100-tickets-14708.html


Last year on Memorial Day several hundred people got tickets (and some were towed) for not paying the meters (on the holiday) near Nationals Park. The tickets were theoretically correct–the intent is to have the meters in the ballpark district be enforced on holidays when the Nats are at home–but there was a not-so-small problem: Normally in DC you don't have to pay the meters on a holiday and no signs advised there was an exception in this area. Therefore, for Independence Day the city announced the meters near the ballpark would not be enforced because the signs weren't clear. I paid the meter anyway that day (and did again on January 1 for the Winter Classic) using the Parkmobile app. The app didn't charge me a meter fee but did charge a 45¢ transaction fee. I figured I was happy to pay 45¢ for some level of security in case an overzealous meter maid was issuing tickets. The signs still hadn't been changed when I drove through the ballpark district last week.

[bzakharin]

Many parking rules are posted with "Except Sundays" for one main reason: the parking enforcement people don't work on Sundays.  Therefore, any regulation on the sign (along with its ambiguities) is essentially irrelevant that day.  That is always my first assumption when seeing those words.

In Philadelphia at least, "Except Sundays" on any parking sign means "you can park here on Sundays for as long as you want for free" (that last bit is relevant only if this is at a parking meter) probably for the reason you mention, so I'm inclined to completely ignore any sign with that phrase on it regardless of what else may be on it before or after.

[PurdueBill]

Many parking rules are posted with "Except Sundays" for one main reason: the parking enforcement people don't work on Sundays.  Therefore, any regulation on the sign (along with its ambiguities) is essentially irrelevant that day.  That is always my first assumption when seeing those words.

"No parking anytime" is usually reserved for places where parking poses an obvious operational or safety threats, like a fire zone, crosswalk, tight corner, etc.  I agree that it should not be used when it doesn't mean "no parking ever."

I also agree that it should never be assumed that the person writing the ticket knew the rule or read the sign or used common sense.  It's much less rare than it should be that people get meter violation tickets with time on the meter and the like.  It's not for nothing that there are significant amounts of personnel devoted to hearing parking violation appeals.

In any case, it could be worse (apologies for the repost, but it seemed relevant):

I thought I'd taken a pic in Denver last week of an unattended "all other times" sign but didn't.  Fortunately street view has it.  What are the other times?

To boot, I didn't see the setup just downstream--NO PARKING ANY TIME to the left, PASSENGER LOADING ONLY ALL OTHER TIMES to the right!  How did I miss it?

[1995hoo]

Bumping this thread because a follow-up story is the lead item on WTOP tonight: DC admits Sunday parking sign is wrong

It's to be replaced with a sign saying "No Parking Except Sundays 9:00 AM—5:00 PM"