UND parking enforcement

[jimdahl]

Fascinating story in the Dakota Student: [url=http://www.UND.edu/org/ds/News/news3.html]Ex-parking officer: UND

[wxman91]

Very interesting. I had a friend who was a "ticket nazi". He prided himself on how many tickets he could write. I'm sure he never made up any tickets like alleged in the article though.

To those frequent violators who don't want to be on a list, suck it up and PARK LEGALLY.

[Sioux,CO]

It doesn't surprise me after what I delt with in my 5 years at UND 97-02. One of my first days on campus I pulled into the circle in front of Walsh Hall to unload some groceries. At the time I had a broken arm and I could only carry a bag or 2 at a time. The "Parking Natzi" saw me pull up and knew I wasn't moving too fast, but wrote me a ticket after like 5 minutes. I "discussed" his actions with him and he told me there was a 5 minute rule or something like that. I got his name and went to the Traffic office to complain. After 1/2 hour they finally folded and gave me a warning.

It wasn't my first or last time at the Traffic office. Classless bunch, at least when I was there.

[Corella]

Interestingly enough, I put 2 quarters in the Twamley meters this morning at 9:52 for class at 10. I arrived back at my car at 10:54 with a "ticket nazi" writing me up. I told him that my meter just expired, there is no way I should be getting a ticket. "Your meter had expired, that is not my problem. I am not breaking any rules by writing a ticket." I am still pissed. Granted, I was 2 minutes over, but give me a break. They watch those meters like hawks, they are there every Mon, Wed, Fri at quarter to the hour, and on Tues and Thurs at 20 after the hour hitting people up, the meters have to be their cash cow. If only every thing at UND was run with the efficiency and productivity of the parking enforcement, we would have a literal utopia going on campus. Ridiculous.

[The Sicatoka]

I think I've figured out one funding stream for a new on-campus parking ramp that's been rumored.

[PCM]

I don't have much sympathy for anyone who gets caught parking illegallly. However, based on my own experience, I do believe that there is some overzealous ticketing going on.

A few months ago, I took a day of vacation time. My wife and I decided to go do some browsing at the UND book store. I parked where I normally do, but when I got out, I noticed that most of the lot had recently been assigned to student parking.

The next row over, there was a sign that said something like "Book store customer parking." I got back in and pulled up directly next to the sign. As a UND employee, I have a red parking medallion hanging from the rearview mirror of my van.

A half hour later when we came out, I was ticketed for parking in the wrong section. My wife and I both checked to make certain that I was, in fact, parked in the customer parking section. There was no doubt about it. Plus, my van was right next to the freakin' customer parking sign!

When I called the traffic office, the woman I talked to said that the person who ticketed me probably assumed that I was a UND employee trying to get away with leaving my vehicle parked in a space reserved for book store customers. I pointed out that UND employees can also be book store customers. She agreed and told me to bring the ticket in to have it revoked.

When I brought the ticket to the traffic office, the woman behind the counter pulled out a map of the parking lot and procceded to lecture me. She said that I was probably parked in a student section instead of customer parking.

I explained to her that my wife and I both checked out the situation and concluded that there was no way I was parked in the student section. I also told her that the person I talked to earlier on the phone said it was probably a mistake and that the ticket should be revoked.

She said that people had been confused about where book store customers should park ever since the lot had been re-signed. I told her that while the signs were indeed confusing and that they should probably make them less confusing if they knew there was a problem, I knew for a fact that my vehicle was legally parked.

Only after I got annoyed did the woman at the traffic office finally agree to revoke the ticket.

[Cratter]

What pisses me off is I always get "No Parking Here to Corner" when my vehicle is half on and half off. The UND traffic division writes them but you have to pay them at the GFPD.

[MinnesotaNorthStar]

Wow...this is so shocking. I've seen ticket nazis removing snow from the parking lines and issuing tickets to students who are parked on them, though there was no way to see the line before hand.

PCM...I've probably gotten that lecture three times with the map.

One of my teachers this summer had a run-in with a ticket nazi in the Twamley lot. He was standing and watching a meter when my teacher came out. He walked by the meter saw there were two minutes left and decided to put a quarter in so this person wouldn't have to get a ticket. The ticket nazi followed him to his car and proceeded to write down his license plate number. My teacher got out of his car, handed him his license and told him to just copy the info down...he wasn't going to hide who he was. He then got a call the next morning from the traffic division head saying the ticket nazi said he had been harassing him and following him around doing this for weeks. My teacher said that this was a blatant lie, as he had only parked in the Clifford lot on campus for quite awhile. She was still whinning, so he simply hung up on her. When he got to work, one of the aviation heads went to talk to him about the situation, as she had called him and said he had been verbally abusive towards her. He calmly explained the situation to him and they had a laugh about it. Apparently feeding someone else's meter is NOT illegal in North Dakota, as he had checked on the law.

These people are extremeists who will stop at nothing to get money.

[Smoggy]

What pisses me off is I always get "No Parking Here to Corner" when my vehicle is half on and half off. The UND traffic division writes them but you have to pay them at the GFPD.

I didn't think the parking nazi's could ticket this, which is why you pay it at GFPD. I know the snowplow people and street cleaners can. Just be thankful that all those one ways are only non parking one night a week. It used to be three nights a week even though they wouldn't clean the streets.