This week I was unfortunate to be a victim of a parking ticket issued by the Department of Transportation at the University of Maryland. While I wrote an article about DOTS a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to note that this ticket was completely not my fault. I had paid for parking at 5:15 P.M. on Thursday, and had received a ticket at 5:30 P.M. that same day. I had paid the parking for three hours and did not understand why I had been given an expired meter ticket. When I saw the ticket, I was not upset at the fact that I had gotten a ticket. I was more upset that I was wrongfully accused of a parking violation that I had clearly not committed. I even had the parking stub which is proof that I had paid for the spot.
The problem behind this ticket is not the money that could potentially have to be paid but the possibility that fighting the ticket could take a lot of time to take care. Having to fight a parking ticket is a hassle that I will have to deal with right in the middle of trying to prepare for the end of the semester and finals. The letter to DOTS should be a huge deal, though. However, the more upsetting part of this experience is that while I paid for my spot many other people who paid must have gotten wrongly ticketed.
Many people who have busy schedules and have a lot of stuff to do in a short period of time might push off paying the ticket or dealing with it until later on. However, waiting on dealing with the ticket can increase fees and not allow you to be able to fight the ticket through writing in the mail instead of in court. This can make the ticket a huge hassle and this is all because DOTS is ticketing too aggressively and sometimes unethically. This should be as a warning to those who are ticketed for doing nothing wrong that the tickets should be fought and won. There is no reason why paying for a parking spot should result in a ticket placed on your car.
