- CONFIRMED: 4:34 p.m. means 4:34 p.m.
The other day, someone I know quite well came to Capitol Hill to do a bit of early holiday shopping. He bought a bunch of things from locally owned stores, and also pumped a few dollars into the City of Seattle's coffers by paying for street parking. There's his payment receipt over there on the left.
As you can see, his street parking expired at 4:34 p.m. But when he came back to his car there was a ticket on it, written for 16:34, also known as 4:34 p.m. You can see the ticket over there on the lower right. This of course raised his fury, since he thought he was fine up to and through the last second of 4:34 p.m. It also raised an important question: When you pay for street parking in Seattle, are you paying for everything up to and including the minute of expiration noted on the payment receipt?
Inspired by Danny Westneat's heroic crusading against outrageous towing fees, I set off to look into this smaller-scale instance of street injustice. In short order, I ended up in conversation with William Edwards, Director of Parking Enforcement for the Seattle Police Department.
“Yes, you’re paid through the time on that receipt," Williams said.
- WRONG!
So was this $44 ticket written in error?
"We don't have an explanation for why the ticket was written," Williams told me. "So, I am sending through a cancellation on that ticket... Let him know that through your efforts and your inquiry we got to the bottom of it."
Great! But can Seattle's parking enforcers really ticket someone at the exact minute that their parking has expired?
"No, we wouldn't," Williams told me. "And, I don't know how many years I've been here, Eli, but I can tell you that's the first time I've ever seen something come through where we wrote somebody a ticket at the time that the pay receipt expired. I have seen it where we wrote them a ticket one minute after, and like I told you, our philosophy, and what we put out, is: 'Don't do that. Don't write people tickets one minute after. Go around the block, come back later.' But we shouldn't be writing anybody tickets for one minute after, let alone the exact time of expiration."
He continued: "Feel free to send me the information for the citizen who brought this up and I'll be happy to send a correspondence to them apologizing for the oversight. And, just so that you know, yes, parking enforcement tries to do the right thing all the time and we just made a mistake. Thanks for sharing this with me."
I will absolutely be sending along this citizen's information so that he can get his letter of apology from the director of parking enforcement. He's the type of person who would love—and maybe frame—such a thing.
And as for the rest of us citizens, let it be known: It's your right to stay in your parking spot up to and through the minute you've paid for!
(But not one minute after.)
So: Get in touch with me if you're ever ticketed at the minute of (or at the minute immediately after) expiration, and have the goods to prove it.
