This week, Senator Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) announced that he has introduced Senate Bill 1388, sponsored by AAA, to allow motorists to park at broken parking meters for the posted time limit without getting a ticket.
The following information is from Sentor DeSaulnier’s Office:
“When parking meters are broken or a payment center is inoperable, motorists should be allowed to park for the posted time limit without getting a ticket,” said DeSaulnier. “Motorists should not have to wonder whether it is OK to park in a particular parking space and for how long. Motorists already think that increased parking enforcement is because of tight municipal budgets. Let’s not make things worse by wrongly ticketing motorists.”
SB 1388 is sponsored by AAA (AAA Northern California, Nevada and Utah and the Automobile Club of Southern California). AAA has 10 million members in California and reports that member complaints are on the rise as meter technology is changing and ticket fines are getting bigger.
“Right now, motorists don’t know what to do when they find they’ve parked at a broken meter,” said Steve Finnegan, Government Affairs Manager for the Automobile Club of Southern California. “That’s because rules change from city to city and they aren’t always posted. Senator DeSaulnier’s bill fixes this problem by simply allowing drivers to park at broken meters (up to the posted time limit) and making clear what the rules are so motorists are not unfairly ticketed.”
“We view this as a simple matter of fairness for the motoring public,” said Bob Brown, Public Affairs Director for AAA Northern California, Nevada and Utah, which represents nearly 4 million members in Northern California. “Motorists should be entitled to park in open parking spaces for the allotted time period, even if the meter is broken, unless they are clearly notified otherwise that they will be subjected to a parking ticket.”
The issue of broken parking meters has arisen in other areas of the country including Detroit and Atlanta with claims of irregularities and situations where people couldn’t pay and then were ticketed. Earlier this month, WXYZ TV in Detroit reported various problems with the same kinds of electronic pay stations used throughout California. “In some cases, when people try to pay, the stations won’t accept money, either cash or credit cards. When the parking meter enforcement workers come by, they write tickets even when the pay stations aren’t working.”
“This common sense preventative measure will help assure that California drivers are not ticketed based on unfair or unknown parking rules,” said DeSaulnier. “It is a simple measure to make sure the rules are clear and drivers have notice of what they are before they get a parking ticket.”
{ 30 comments }
Wow, very important high priority stuff. Meanwhile this state is circling down the drain. Nice work Mark. Hey votes count people. You’ll figure it out one of these days.
It’s like he can’t find anything to do to justify his paycheck….get him off the payroll NOW!
@1 and 2,
It’s not his job to save the world, however, he tries to do something that helps the public and you two morons complain about it.
This guy is a big silly.
Nice work Mark.
Our family appreciates your efforts AND we vote for you!
He could do worse…
If this bill passes, I will be very UNsurprised if there’s suddenly a jump in meters being vandalized. “But officer, it’s inoperable, so I can stay here as long as I like! Why, I have NO idea who jammed a wedge of a Starbucks cup into the coin slot like that. None at all…”
Will this bill encourage people to break meters in order to park free?
Will be far more impressed when Senator DeSaulnier lists the numerous bills he has introduced to reduce California’s run away state spending.
This is a joke. Do you consider this news Mayor? The fact that you even post this nonsense makes it even more of a joke. This state is on the brink of collapse and this is what this bozo is doing.
The question is still out there. Name something good this guy has ever done for our community. His next bill will be to make sure that all orphans feel loved and no one kicks dogs anymore. You know…….the tough decisions that need to be made for our state right now! He is such a mover and a shaker!
Mark is pandering to his voter base, a bunch of left wing nut jobs who all want something for nothing.
While the state budget concerns grow Mark takes the easy way out. If Mark had any real ambition, he would be spearheading balancing the budget and enacting budget reforms that keep the state solvent. But not Mark. He’ll keep on showing up at the garden parties of his uber left uber rich supporters and keep them happy by selling his soul for whoever pays him the most, just like every other politician who prostitutes themselves for office.
Mark got at least 2 stooges to post for him.States going downhill fast and he thinks anyone cares about this crap? Watch people jamb crap in meters and then not pay .this is double dumb.
Just as I predicted, another silly bill from Marky Mark. It’s election year kiddies! Be sure to vote for Marky Mark, author of silly bills promoting sunshine and wonderfulness!
If a city is allowed to write tickets for broken meters, there is no incentive for the city to repair the meter. Essentially, that encourages the city to have a high proportion of broken meters, because they are automatic tickets.
You can’t even argue about whether it is unfair or not, because you don’t get a day in court. All you get is a PO Box addres to send the ticket and the money.
I’m surprised this hasn’t been law for decades now; the question is what has DeSaulnier been doing all these years instead?
@Mister Wister
t r o l l
I predict a sudden increase in broken and vandalized meters all over California which will cause high maintenance and replacement costs. That, in turn, will require local jurisdictions and parking authorities to increase hourly parking rates.
Sometimes I wonder about the type of posting like #3 trying to trigger responses just for the sake of stirring things up and is meaningless!
Just like Obama – get on the bandwagon with “feel good” legislation so they can get re-elected! Like “Elwood” (at #12) said “…its election year, kiddies!”.
Who do you have to worry about getting robbed from? Thugs or the police? Answer the POLICE. I once got a parking ticket in Berkeley for parking to long in a 30 min zone, I was only there for a few minutes when I showed the officer my receipt from a merchant across town from ten minutes earlier. He told me to show the judge my receipt and the would drop it. Like anyone can afford to take a full day off to fight a $35.00 ticket. They know you don’t have time to fight that it is easier to just pay it . Cops are crooks but they can take your money legally.
Clearly most of you writing have not received tickets for parking at a broken meter . Fine, to stop the problem lets just get rid of the parking meters so that they cant be broken. Then no laws have to be changed and you might not have any thing to complain about.
The Mayor must be getting paid to put this politicians name on Claycord every other day.
I speak from experience. I worked for a city in the area where “broken” meters were not tickets. The city had one worker who was tasked with emptying and fixing the meters. She pulled hundreds of objects out of the meters weekly. Pennies and paper clips were the biggest culprits. All placed in the meter with the intent of free parking. This was a small city with only a dozen or so streets with meters. This bill will cause more of this….
Haha, no, not getting paid.
More vandalized meters = more public workers with bloated pay and pensions = more votes for Mark.
@ 19 .. I don’t think it matters whether the Mayor has a bias towards reporting on DeSaulnier or not. He’s our state senator. What he does is news.
@ 17 I’m with ya! Berkeley is brutal. Couple times recently I was almost back to my car thinking, “cool, I’ll just make it,” and a metermaid passed me and started writing a ticket just before I got there.
This legislature is made up of people like Marky Mark:
“This is the same Legislature that offends the sensibilities of most Californians, according to a recent Field Poll, because lawmakers habitually ignore important issues, carry bills of self-serving trivia, help special interests, and manipulate their schedules to maximize their incomes.
This is the same Legislature that didn’t react when one of its members was caught by police with a prostitute in his car, parked alongside a busy Los Angeles highway, or when another crashed her state-issued car while driving recklessly, injuring two people.
More recently, this is the same Legislature that didn’t respond when a member was nailed for shoplifting, or when another carried a loaded pistol into an airport security checkpoint.”
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/29/4298896/dan-walters-california-legislators.html#storylink=cpy
De Saulinier is a career politician. What a jack ass. He bankrupted the this county with all the pension spiking approval. He bought the union vote and then left to the state capitol. All on our nickel.
He doesn’t give a damn about us. Just his own pocketbook. He and George Miller are left wing wackos.
But at least he didn’t join Joan Buchanan, the dilitante from Alamo, in calling for the resignation of the President of the Fish and Game Commission. His crime was hunting mountain lions in idaho. It’s perfectly legal there. The left, lead by the model of propriety Gavin Newsome,is all tight jawed over this and Mark didn’t join them. In California lions disembowel and eat about fifty deer a year and have outright killed three women since the elites decided to bankroll a ballot initiative which passed protecting lions in Ca. Congrats Mark for being on the right side, for once.
I wish they wouldn’t allow yellow lights that only last 3 seconds, especially at intersections with cameras.
I have parked at broken meters quite often over the years (in fact I look for them), and have never received a citation. I have always placed a bag over it, usually with a “Out of Order” sign. The newer meters flash “fail” or something similar. On those, I have never used a sign and have not been ticketed. Maybe I have just been lucky!
I agree with the CCordians, this is not the type of bill we need our state legislative folks working on.
MR LATE LOOSER, just go away.
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