On Prospect Park West at 9th Street, there are four parking spots that are off-limits to drivers between April and September. The stated purpose is to allow parks department vehicles access to the park during summer event season. But the ban has a side effect of being a nice little source of parking ticket revenue for the city, the Daily News reports.
The city issued 625 tickets to drivers who parked in the spots between April 1 and September 30 of last year, collecting $72,000 in fines, the city’s OpenData site shows. Most of the people who parked in the spots had no idea they were doing anything wrong, since the spots are marked as parking spots and there’s just one small sign that marks them as off-limits, and trying to decipher parking signs leaves drivers feeling like this:
When a complaint about the parking spaces was filed with the Department of Transportation, the department’s official response was that the spaces are fine and people need to learn how to read better. After the Daily News inquired, however, the DOT sent an inspector to the site. But why would they change it? It’s a valuable trap.
The infamous sign, via Google Maps
(Photo: Eric Fischer)
