Hoboken crosswalk ticket – 100 feet away?

Hoboken411 reader Nancy was miffed to discover that she received a intersection parking ticket that was so blatantly wrong, she had to share:

“I am writing to you about a subject that is near and dear to all of our hearts – Hoboken Parking Scams! I love Hoboken. However, it is infuriating to hear various stories about how the city is stealing money from its residents!

Here is my story: I received a parking ticket on 12/29/11 for parking within 25 feet of a crosswalk (Grand Street between 7th & 8th St.). In fact, I was parked 100 feet away!

There were 3 parked cars in front of me (who each also got tickets) plus a driveway. The parking enforcement officer clearly had to have known what he was doing because there is no way to dispute the fact that I was parked very, very far away from the crosswalk. In fact, he should not have ticketed the 3 cars in front of me either! The yellow line was about 24 feet long and all of the cars were parked behind the yellow line. Even though the ticket was only $54 and not really worth the hassle to go to court, I was very angry that the town was blatantly stealing from the residents!!”

Ticket dismissed, but why is HPU disrupting life in Hoboken?

“I had my court day recently, and the ticket was dismissed. When I explained the situation to the prosecutor, she said in disbelief and disgust, “You’re kidding me! 100 feet away?!” She promptly put my ticket aside and said she was putting aside the tickets where it was blatant that the Parking Authority was out of line and was going to have them talk to the offending officers. While I would be naive to assume that these practices will change, I did feel somewhat vindicated to have her make that effort.

SO, I wanted to ask you to inform all of your readers to contest tickets (if possible) when it is blatant that the town is raping you. A $54 ticket is a low enough price that most people will pay it even if they are not guilty.

However, we have to let the town know that this is unacceptable and do our part in letting them know the truth!”

Technorati Tags: Crosswalk, Hoboken, Intersection, Letter to the Editor, New Jersey, NJ, Parking, Reader Mail, Ticket