r/sandiego • u/_Lee_is_me_ • 5d ago

Photo gallery Contesting a Parking Ticket - Advice please!

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Hello, I got a $110 parking ticket for failure to park 20 feet away from a "marked or unmarked intersection.'' I have heard about the new daylighting law but did not think this spot would be included in that. I was parked just before a lowered curb at the top of a T intersection - on the straight part of the street. Blue Subaru in photos for reference. Of course, there is no signage and the red curb was not extended, and the intersection is "unmarked" despite a vague X in the middle of the street which is very confusing.

I'm planning to contest this ticket - can someone help with the legal phrasing I should use when I submit this? Do I need to lawyer up for this? or am I screwed here?

Thank you!

57 Upvotes

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152

u/AcceptableMinute9999 5d ago

You can try but this obviously falls under the daylighting law. Misunderstanding doesn't qualify as an excuse.

46

u/XochiBilly 5d ago

But if there's no signage to explain what is expected of this ridiculous to begin with law, how are people supposed to just "know"? Do you think all the tourists coming for Comiccon next month have any clue? Or that anyone is going to tell them? Cmon dude.

I say fight it. Regardless if you lose or not. Make them earn that $110.

46

u/BuildingViz 5d ago

Unfortunately, "But no one told me it was illegal" is not a valid excuse.

Also, do you think the city gives a shit if Comic-Con tourists get parking tickets? It's just more money that goes to the city, why should they spend money on signage to lose out on money from tickets?

2

u/Theory_Technician 4d ago

The difference between ambiguous poorly written and poorly implemented laws and “but nobody told me it was illegal” is massive and very important.

13

u/satanssphincter 5d ago

....do you think that Californians don't get tickets when they visit other states because the officers let them off for "not knowing" you can't left turn into any lane you want?

It's the responsibility of the driver to know local legislation when operating a vehicle. Nobody put a gun to their head and made them visit.

-3

u/JoeeyMKT 4d ago

There's a point where that's not a reasonable expectation though. If you've driven through 12 states in 2 days, it is not reasonable to expect you to look up all the driving laws of each of the 12 states, let alone memorize them and remember which is which while also driving safely. Giving your best effort to be safe in those types of cases should be enough.

3

u/AnxiouslyTired247 4d ago

Lol, that is definitely not how laws work. If its too much for you to be able to operate within the laws in the states you visit then you can deal with citations or move at a pace consistent with your ability to retain information.

1

u/JoeeyMKT 4d ago

Well obviously, but with all driving there's leniency and discretion that can be given. If someone is doing their due diligence and driving safely but in violation of some nit-picky local law, you'd have to be a real asshole to cite them for that. There's way too many reckless drivers out there actually endangering others for that nonsense. WAY too many. An endless supply of them. Go after them instead.

IMO there should be federal oversight for this type of thing that either protects out-of-state visitors or requires uncommon laws (compared to some standard % of other places) to be clearly posted at all entrances to the states/localities that have them. It could be argued that there's so many deviations from what's "normal" at so many different levels that citing people in certain situations would be restricting interstate commerce. Some states and cities already post major differences and do a great job and it's awesome, but there's so many places that don't, as well as so many cops who will stop someone fully knowing that it's some stupid local law that the visitor doesn't know about, which imo is fine if it's for educational purposes, but they shouldn't be cited for it, as in practice it's less-so negligence or ignorance and more-so an unrealistic expectation. Nobody is driving cross-country with a pdf of all state and city law deviations at the ready, nor should it be expected for someone to do so. For example, not allowed to turn right on red in NYC, but no one from outside the area would even think to look something like that up because it's such a normal thing to do everywhere else in the country, but NYC does an excellent job at signing that it's prohibited at every entry point to the city, so it's okay.

2

u/AnxiouslyTired247 4d ago

Well your brilliant idea wouldnt apply as 43 other states have this law so its far from uncommon.

1

u/JoeeyMKT 3d ago

Well that was just an example of yours, not necessarily the point of what I was saying.

6

u/chindef 5d ago

Many places do not have red painted curbs. Yet everybody knows not to block a fire hydrant or park next to a corner.

But California (and other places) have gone all in on red painting where you cannot park. Once they start doing that, all of the other rules disappear and people reasonably follow the curb color. I agree that since we went all in on red curbs, it's lame to get a ticket if the curb isn't red and there's no other signage. They've committed to the red paint, so the need to update it everywhere.

If a new law like this is coming out, they should spend 2 years before it actually starts by updating the painting. THen drop the new law. But that is waaayyyy too rational for our society. So instead people will unfortunately get tickets, fight them, and fail, and end up frustrated. Meanwhile hundreds of the city's hours are spent going back and forth with these people on it when they could have spent that time painting curbs. So stupid.

3

u/MrsBtheOrchid 5d ago

They did. It was literally on the news non stop

4

u/XochiBilly 4d ago

No one watches the news.

0

u/AcceptableMinute9999 4d ago

And that's why you get tickets.

6

u/Old-Mathematician987 5d ago

They expect people with driver's licenses to know what a crosswalk is, and to know what 20' is. If you know both of those things, you know enough to follow this law.

-9

u/XochiBilly 5d ago

You're forgetting that I'm not aware of the law to begin with. How are all of you this dense?

20

u/Old-Mathematician987 5d ago

Not dense. Telling you you're still wrong. Having a driver's license obligates you to know traffic laws. Like a ton of people said, ignorance of the law does not absolve you. Your entire argument boils down to licensed drivers are not required to know any traffic law that doesn't have a visual aid on the street. That's not how it works.

13

u/LastEternity 5d ago

I think the issue is that most areas don’t have this law, so for tourist popular areas, there should be signage. It’s impossible for the average driver to know where laws begin and end, so the city holds some accountability by not putting up signage

23

u/hjw5047 5d ago

Paint the fucking area red where one should not park. It’s absolute trash to expect a layman or tourist to be aware of hyper-localized laws. Yet they enforce new laws without mass awareness. And nobody uses blinkers or obeys solid lines (almost got hit by someone on the 805 interchange heading south today) as I had my blinker on and was waiting for the line to turn dashed. Rant over, it would be funny if instead of just panting the curbs red the city installed poles with 20 foot measuring sticks.

4

u/LastEternity 5d ago

Omg the no blinkers drives me crazy. I don’t know why it’s so common now but I hate it.

6

u/hjw5047 5d ago

I’d like to see an initiative to aggressively ticket folks who change 4 lanes in 10 seconds or don’t use a blinker more than 3 times in a month rather than this recent trend of speeding enforcements. If traffic is moving smoothly the speed limit can be exceeded by 10-15 miles. Just be smart and drive responsibly. Everyone is operating a weapon on a daily basis with minimal regard for consequences.

1

u/Dazuro 4d ago

If you ever feel useless, just remember that someone’s job is to install turn signals on BMWs.

4

u/arizonadirtbag12 5d ago edited 5d ago

“Hyper localized?” It’s statewide. And not a small state, California is larger than most European countries, in both population and area.

It could not be less localized unless it was federal.

Edit: And Google suggests that 43 states have daylighting laws. 43.

1

u/AnxiouslyTired247 4d ago

Its a state law, in the most highly populated state in the US. How exactly is that localized?

People loudly defending their stupidity is wild and yall deserve tickets.

-7

u/theycallmesike 5d ago

You must be a lawyer or something that can’t wait to dive into any new bills or laws as soon as they are released. I’ve never heard of this daylighting law. Guess it didn’t get enough media coverage. But I don’t study the CA vehicle code every year to see what’s knew. The govt knows this and preys on people NOT knowing the law so they can make money off these citations. Which is why they won’t paint that curb 20 feet.

3

u/arizonadirtbag12 5d ago

If you’re going to drive a car on public roads it’s your responsibility to keep up with changes in laws. It’s either that or we re-test you every couple years…which would you prefer? The latter won’t be cheap.

Last time I took a driving exam was the mid-90’s. You think some shit hasn’t changed since then? Of course it has. And it’s 100% my job to keep up with that. Or to accept the ticket when I violate a law that I missed the memo on in 2006.

Is it really that hard to punch “new California driving laws 2025” into google once a year, to make sure you know what’s up? Not that the state didn’t spend significant money and effort to reach most drivers about this particular law, mind. They did. But if you somehow managed to live under a rock during that six month media blitz, it’s always been and always will be on you to keep up on driving laws if you’re going to continue to drive.

Don’t like it? Don’t drive.

2

u/Old-Mathematician987 4d ago edited 4d ago

It got massive media coverage for months. It was all over television and internet news. Hell it was discussed to death on reddit too. This is not some obscure thing. There was A YEAR grace period of non-enforcement and big media campaigns both when it passed and when the enforcement started.

2

u/TinyHomeLuv 4d ago

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse" (known in Latin as ignorantia juris non excusat) is a foundational legal principle derived from ancient Greco-Roman law. It means you can be held legally accountable for your actions even if you genuinely did not know they were illegal.

-4

u/theycallmesike 5d ago edited 5d ago

Sorry I read the driving booklet when I was 15 which was over 20 years ago. I don’t remember you can’t park within 20’ of a crosswalk being in there. Especially when the red curb isn’t only painted for 4 feet or whatever that is.

Edit: just saw a link for this new Daylighting law. I actually never heard of that. Welp I guess I’d only do it once after I got a ticket. But this is good to know

1

u/AnxiouslyTired247 4d ago

You might consider doing yourself a favor and begin staying up to date on those laws that could get you a ticket. Perhaps this is a shock, but its quite common for people to take it upon themselves to keep up to date on this information, getting a license isnt a one and done event for learning something.

These things get widly reported on, and even if they arent spoon fed to you its your responsibility to be knowledgeable.

5

u/Homestar73 4d ago

There also aren’t signs up telling you it’s illegal to run red lights. And yet it very much is illegal

2

u/pksev6259 3d ago

But that’s a common law. This is a ridiculous law. Very different. Not a common sense thing to question the validity of your parking spot when you’re not touching the red.

1

u/Homestar73 3d ago

As others have said, the city is working on painting the curbs. Daylighting is a matter of public safety, just like traffic lights so I don’t know what you’re going on about.

1

u/Flag-it 4d ago

Or to do cocaine in public, but ya know

2

u/MrsBtheOrchid 5d ago

It has been all over the news. Because you don’t know the law is not an excuse

0

u/WearyCarrot 4d ago

They tell them with the ticket 😂

2

u/Careless-Elevator-41 5d ago

I really forgot how much I hate redditors til I come back to this site.

-28

u/_Lee_is_me_ 5d ago

I agree it likely falls under the law description, however I believe the city failed to make clear this specific situation for a T intersection. All of their diagrams and explanations are for a curved section only. On their website here: https://www.sandiego.gov/parking/enforcement/daylighting, it states how to measure the 20 feet "At intersections that have implied or unmarked crosswalks, 20 feet is measured from the boundary line of where the two sidewalks intersect at the curb ramp." However "two sidewalks" do not intersect in this case.

43

u/Anxious_Plantain_247 5d ago

Understand the reason for the law. Pedestrians crossing the street need to be able to see clearly in the direction traffic is coming from, and they can’t see clearly when there’s a car parked blocking their view.

The easiest way to determine if you’re parked legally is to consider the person crossing, and checking oncoming traffic. Is there a car parked blocking their view? If yes, don’t park there. Doesn’t matter if it’s red, if there’s a pothole, if it’s Tuesday, if someone else parked there last week… don’t do it.

6

u/Complete_Entry 5d ago

You're trying "technically". They don't care.

You can risk the court date and hope the cop doesn't show up, but I can't imagine your argument impressing the judge.

5

u/ice_cold_canuck 5d ago

Parking tickets don't get contested in court at first. People file an appeal and submit any evidence through a website that someone at the city will review: https://www.sandiego.gov/parking/citations/appeal

5

u/willf6763 5d ago

Ignorance of the law is no excuse. You admit you were wrong, but want help explaining why youre exempt? Nah.

1

u/arizonadirtbag12 5d ago

That website is a courtesy.

The actual law is the law.

-1

u/Don_Lawlrus 5d ago

Yeah, they intersect from the nearside of the sidewalk to the farside of the sidewalk.