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Parking within 30ft of stop sign (PA)

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Dan987

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? PA

I received a traffic citation in the mail today. The date of offense is from April 27. The "date filed" was May 6. It caught me by surprise because I never saw an actual ticket on my car. I have since moved across the state, and just today, over 5 months later I received that actual letter of the offense in the mail. Is that kind of strange that it would take so long?

Anyway, the citation is for parking within 30ft of a stop sign, which people have done every day for the two year period I lived at this location and I never noticed anyone getting a ticket. The law is the law, but I am wondering how likely it would be to successfully fight the citation because of a lack of yellow paint on the curb or lack of a sign that says something like "no parking from here to corner". I always thought that people go by the yellow lines so that they weren't required to memorize the traffic laws in an instance like this.
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? PA

I received a traffic citation in the mail today. The date of offense is from April 27. The "date filed" was May 6. It caught me by surprise because I never saw an actual ticket on my car. I have since moved across the state, and just today, over 5 months later I received that actual letter of the offense in the mail. Is that kind of strange that it would take so long?

Anyway, the citation is for parking within 30ft of a stop sign, which people have done every day for the two year period I lived at this location and I never noticed anyone getting a ticket. The law is the law, but I am wondering how likely it would be to successfully fight the citation because of a lack of yellow paint on the curb or lack of a sign that says something like "no parking from here to corner". I always thought that people go by the yellow lines so that they weren't required to memorize the traffic laws in an instance like this.
You moved - it's not strange that it took 5 months to get to you...they had to track you down. You're lucky it got to you at all.
As for fighting it...nope, you're WAY past time. And, even if you weren't, you haven't offered up a valid defense.
 

Dan987

Junior Member
You moved - it's not strange that it took 5 months to get to you...they had to track you down. You're lucky it got to you at all.
As for fighting it...nope, you're WAY past time. And, even if you weren't, you haven't offered up a valid defense.
I moved recently, and the letter was sent to my original address last week, and then forwarded to my new address, so they didn't need to track me down. Wouldn't they have sent a letter before this one? I would just assume that it would be sent within a week or two, but I'm not in the habit of getting tickets so I don't know.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
I moved recently, and the letter was sent to my original address last week, and then forwarded to my new address, so they didn't need to track me down. Wouldn't they have sent a letter before this one? I would just assume that it would be sent within a week or two, but I'm not in the habit of getting tickets so I don't know.
Does it change the offense? If you call and talk to somebody, they MIGHT be sympathetic and reduce the amount due to match the original amount due before it became late.
 

patstew

Member
I moved recently, and the letter was sent to my original address last week, and then forwarded to my new address, so they didn't need to track me down. Wouldn't they have sent a letter before this one? I would just assume that it would be sent within a week or two, but I'm not in the habit of getting tickets so I don't know.
Nope -- my office doesn't send letters for one ticket, for instance, unless the total due is above a certain amount. The postal budget wouldn't last otherwise.
 
Isn't Zigner extra helpful today? You could check the sign and see if it is posted properly. If on a side street, the bottom of the sign needs to be a min. of 5ft from the pavement level. If not, it would not be enforceable. But several months have past so may need a FOIA request to the department who maintains the signage ans ask if any work was done on that sign to counter any "its been too long argument". Thats you best hope if you can fight the ticket at all.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Isn't Zigner extra helpful today? You could check the sign and see if it is posted properly. If on a side street, the bottom of the sign needs to be a min. of 5ft from the pavement level. If not, it would not be enforceable. But several months have past so may need a FOIA request to the department who maintains the signage ans ask if any work was done on that sign to counter any "its been too long argument". Thats you best hope if you can fight the ticket at all.
Wow, wrong again :rolleyes:

Seriously - move along now - your posts fall deeper and deeper in to the abyss
 

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