Curb your wheels – even on flat roads – or get $50 ticket

[Liberal_in_LA]

Residents along Chenery Street in Glen Park have been perplexed in recent days to learn they live on a hill. Common sense would say the stretch just east of the canyon is flat, but when you’re talking about the Municipal Transportation Agency, common sense doesn’t always come into play.

Several residents have been shocked to receive numerous citations for $50 apiece for failing to curb their wheels when parked on the street, tickets they’ve never received before. There’s apparently a petition to fight the citations in the works and a pledge by some not to pay up.

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So the most likely scenario is that there’s a new officer on patrol along Chenery Street who is taking Muni’s rules very, very seriously. After all, the code states that drivers must curb their wheels “on any perceptible grade” which technically is one of at least three percent. In hilly San Francisco, that’s pretty darn flat.

http://blog.sfgate.com/cityinsider/2012/04/30/curb-your-wheels-even-on-flat-roads-or-face-s-f-muni-wrath/?tsp=1

[southernyankeebelle]

1. Am sorry what does that mean to "curb your wheels". I don't get it. Can someone tell me.

Am a woman and never heard that expression before. I don't mean to sound stupid. I am sure when someone tells me I'll feel pretty silly.

[MissB]

3. It means to point your wheels to the curb so that if your car rolls down the hill

It will go to the curb instead.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. You angle the wheels in out out depending which way your car points up or down hill... I forget whic

which

[Thor_MN]

11. Uphill, turn the wheels away from the curb, downhill, into the curb

The idea is to use the curb to chock the wheels, in case the brakes fail, the curb holds the car. So after getting to the parking spot, turn the wheels, then let gravity take the front wheel into the curb. (It also gets you to park close to the curb.) If there is no curb to chock the wheels, turn the wheels such that the car would steer off the road (turn the wheels toward the edge of the road, obviously skipping the gravity roll part.)

A very effective defense would be to put the car in the spot where one got the ticket, put the car in neutral, and get off the brakes. If the car does not roll, a friend taking a video of this excercise would be proof positive that the ticket is BS.

[southernyankeebelle]

12. I told you I would feel silly when I found out. Thank you. I learned something today.

[snooper2]

16. And how long have you been driving?

LOL

[southernyankeebelle]

17. don't ask. LOL your already laughing anyway why give you more ammo LOL

[robinlynne]

6. I got a ticket for that last month in LA. My violation was that my wheels were pointed straight.

I figured they are looking for revenue no matter what. It was on a hill, and you are supposed to point your wheels toward the curb so that if your brakes fail, your car will not hit another car.

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. I have never heard of this before.

It makes sense, so glad to know it now (from a safety perspective).

[robinlynne]

9. I should add. It was my one dinner out this year. A groupon, two could eat for the price of one. We

split a meal at a diner. We only drank tap water, no dessert, to save money, and then I got a 50.00 ticket.....

[southernyankeebelle]

10. Thanks for telling me. That makes sense and I feel silly LOL

[name not needed]

2. Sounds like they found a new way to squeeze money out of people

[lonestarnot]

4. Cities and municipalities are searching for dough in all respects. Report all trends so people are

aware. Thank you. Throw a butt out the window here and it's $250 to $300.

[tularetom]

7. This is the kind of thing that leads to civil disobedience

People will pretty much obey any law that they feel is reasonable. They'll even give the benefit of the doubt to things that seem more than a little dubious.

But when confronted with laws that are just out and out stupid, many people will flat refuse to follow them.

Petitions and pledges not to pay are the first steps in getting rid of idiotic restrictions like this.

[NV Whino]

13. What a dilemma

Turn the wheels in or out? Is this flat stretch of road up hill or down hill?

[SheilaT]

14. I always engage my emergency brake

when I park my car. Always. Flat land, hill, it doesn't matter. I think those who drive an automatic (I drive a stick) and think just putting the car in Park are making a big mistake. Emergency brake, everyone. Oh, and my car is always left in gear when I park.

I am somewhat aware of the guidelines about pointing the wheels toward or away from the curb on a hill, but I honestly don't bother because of the above.

[robinlynne]

15. Yeah, but the ticket is still 50.00

[SheilaT]

23. Lucky me I don't live

in that area.

[Odin2005]

18. Police = Extortion racket.

[Egalitarian Thug]

19. In LA, are you joking? LA is infamous for enhancing revenue generation through bogus tickets.

They've been caught red-handed, even on local news video of simply writing tickets to fill their non-existent (wink, wink) quotas, and it has never even slowed it down.

Since outlawed taxing the rich, bogus tickets are just another living in LA tax. (I'm pretty sure if Beverly Hills ever catches up with me, I qualify for the death penalty for unpaid parking tickets)

[Liberal_in_LA]

21. yep. And they have extended parking meter times until 8pm! to get even more revenue.

[Egalitarian Thug]

22. I gave up fighting when I got a parking ticket downtown (Pershing) while my

car was in my garage in Hollywood and I was out of town. Went into court and the judge completely ignored the evidence that proved I couldn't have been there. So, I just stopped paying them completely.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

20. This is nothing but a $$$$ grab. >:(

I live here, I should know.

There has been a rash of crazy ticket writing that has been going on the past 2 years -- I've never seen anything like it. It is all about money for the coffers. I got an expired tag ticket (had the tag -- hadn't put it on because it was raining) from the University of California San Francisco campus police. I should mention I was nowhere NEAR the UCSF campus -- I was literally miles away, and parked in such a way that someone had to go LOOKING to see if my tag was expired. I wanted to fight it but found out it was perfectly legal for them to do it. If SFPD had written the ticket, it would have been a "fix-it" ticket that I would not have had to pay for, but the UCSF ticket had no fit-it option -- I was stuck paying it even though my registration was perfectly valid and up to date. >

There is going to be some big push back on this whole curbed wheel trickery MTA is playing.