Vespas and parking tickets
We have received many tickets over the past years for failing to pay the meter when our vespas park on the street. Each time I write the city and the fine is voided. BTW, we are not taking up a space. There is always ample space for a car to fit after we park. I am so frustrated that the city has police officers issue tickets for something that is legal. I write a letter, the city has to process the fine that it isn't getting paid and in essence the officer has wasted my time and their fellow colleagues. Waste of time, waste of city money.
I have a form letter at this point but I find the whole thing frustrating. Just had to rant. Fred has had three tickets in the past two weeks.
Comments (Archived):
Do you have a copy of that form letter just in case? Also, write a letter explaining yourself to Rep. Anthony Weiner as he has a keen interest in scooter parking here in NYC. You can write him as I have at
Congressman Anthony Weiner
80-02 Kew Gardens Rd.
Suite 5000
Kew Gardens, NY 1141
Do what everyone I know who rides a Vespa around the city all day does: Get a velcro license plate holder, and cover your VIN with black grease. Park vespa, take plate. No lazy meter maid in town will try and get that VIN – and with no plate, they move on…
Do what everyone I know who rides a Vespa around the city all day does: Get a velcro license plate holder, and cover your VIN with black grease. Park vespa, take plate. No lazy meter maid in town will try and get that VIN – and with no plate, they move on…
Anything parked on the street without a license plate should be towed. I would love to see someone try and find the scooter in the impound lot. They are lazy there too and since they cannot find the VIN or have a plate #, there is no way to track it (same with motercycles)
I gotta disagree here.
The spirit of the law is that the city charges for parking, not for parking spaces. The system originally wasn’t designed for being able to park in an area that isn’t technically a whole space.
However, now that we have the muni-meter machines and we’re no longer bound by the constraints of parking meters at car sized intervals, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have to pay for a muni-meter receipt just like anyone else who is parking, and stick it on the Vespa. You wouldn’t get ticketed if you had a muni-meter receipt on the bike.
If its not a muni-meter space, and it’s an actual parking meter, than this comment is moot and you’re right.
I assert that parking scooters should get a break form paying the muni meter if not for the reward of investing in an environmentally friendly vehicle and taking the risk of sharing the road with larger less bike sensitive operators. Furthermore, if I had a muni-meter receipt on my bike, what is stopping a car parker from removing my paid for muni meter receipt I have stuck on my scooter and taking it for the dash in their car?
Personally, I think non-obstructive sidewalk parking should be permitted around the city which allows bike, motorcycle and scooter riders to chain their vehicles for security. If every block had at these bike parking poles, bikes would not be allowed to clutter the sidewalks and avail street parking to larger vehicles. But the laws are clear-sideWALKS are for pedestrians, and with the vin number you can still get a $115 sidewalk parking ticket. Parking and securing motorbikes still remains a issue in NYC.