Fighting Parking Tickets By Phone - Kind Of

from the waste-no-time! dept

Not exactly sure what's going on here, but apparently there's a new service in NYC, San Francisco and Washington DC that will let you immediately begin fighting your parking ticket via your phone, the second you discover it. While the pitch sounds nice, the actual logistics aren't quite so simple. First of all, what if you actually deserve the parking ticket? I guess that's besides the point. Second, the fighting "immediately" part isn't entirely accurate. You have to dial a number from your mobile phone, input your ticket number and a credit card number - and then go find a computer to complete the process. That's right, the phone part is basically useless, since you have to end up at a computer anyway. More importantly, why do you need to input your credit card? The article claims "no additional cost", and you could even read the article in a way to believe that this is a system sponsored by the local government. It's not. It's run by a private company, and they take half of the parking ticket fee if you get out of the ticket. So, the "no additional cost" means no additional cost beyond half the price of the ticket, which you wouldn't have to pay at all if you get out of it the normal way.