The Seattle Times ran an article earlier this week, Seattle’s best place to get a parking ticket that featured a look at the most ticketed spots in the city:
In a 19-month period, more than 2,500 tickets were written to cars parked on one block of Bagley Avenue North in Wallingford.
For a time, Dana Rasmussen tried to do the neighborly thing. When he saw an unfamiliar car parking on his block in the evening, he would warn the driver: It’s residential-zoned parking, and they do ticket. But he found that most folks weren’t terribly grateful for the tip.
“They’d get pretty hostile a lot of times, so I stopped saying anything,” he explained. “If people want to get a ticket, I guess that’s their business.”
They really should have listened.The unassuming, Craftsman-lined stretch in Wallingford may look like your typical North Seattle street. But make no mistake. The 4500 block of Bagley Avenue North is a parking-ticket cash cow for the city.
Analysis of Seattle Municipal Court records shows that from January 2014 to July of this year, more than 2,500 tickets were written to cars parked there — $133,714 in fines.
It also ranks Bagley among Seattle’s most-ticketed single blocks…
We’re left to ponder whether someone is calling that in, or there’s just a extra zealous meter maid on the prowl.
From my home office window, I’ve got a view of the intersection of 4th Ave NE and NE 42nd, right by the Latona school. Because Fourth Ave dog-legs, there are two easy-to-miss crosswalks that parkers often don’t realize they are blocking, and I’ve watched the meter maid ticket people there every day for a while. I tried posting a sign, and even spray-painted the curb in the hopes it would tip people off, but to little use. My guess is it’s commuters coming in from up north, parking and then walking over into the University District for work or school, otherwise they’d learn faster. I have no idea how that corner compares to Bagley, but it was doing a brisk business for a while.
(Thanks for the tip, Amanda Reichert! Photo from the Seattle Municipal Archives, 1960.)
My only ever Seattle parking ticket was on the 4500 block of Bagley. I was going to the Guild Theater and was new to Wallingford and didn’t notice the RPZ sign.
Just got one. I’m going to skip the taco place from now on. Can’t get a spot. They can’t get my business. Telling all my friends they Wallingford should be avaoided at all costs.
Nobody is calling anything in, it’s been this way for the 23 years we have been on Bagley.
As for Parking Enforcement. It’s their job to write tickets. They know if they come by Bagley just about any night after 5 and before 12 they can write 5-12 tickets. If it was my job I would be sure to make a sweep every night. Not anything extra, just doing their job. (I have seen the officer several times warning people, she has made a point of asking me if I have a permit, so no one is being extra anything.)
Now as the Times reporter pointed out, the Zone 5 signs are on light poles and not their own pole, so it’s easy to miss them. Much of the traffic is coming from 45th, so again it’s easy to miss.
This might be a interesting social study to determine why people don’t read signs, but otherwise that’s all it is.
People not reading.
Can someone post a picture of the Zone 5 sign? I have lived here for four years and never knew there was any kind of permit parking in Wallinford.
I have lived on this street in Wallingford for nearly 7 years. Myself, and many other neighbors, have attempted to warn people about parking on the zoned side of the street without a permit, blocking the fire hydrant and blocking driveways/garages. Just as the other neighbor mentioned, I have been met with more contempt than appreciation.
There have been evenings that I have come home and had to park 3 blocks away from our place, just to see all but one car parked in front of our place ticketed for parking there illegally.
The city has tried to warn people about the RPZ parking. There is not only a sign on the tephone pole but also another sign on the corner. People just don’t seem to care. We’ve had the same few cars come back multiple times and be ticketed overy and over. There have been 2 cars that ended up booted in front of our place.
The parking enforcement officer gives warnings. She tries to give people grace. But when the same car is parked there night after night, she tickets them. That’s her job.
I hope that people start respecting the rules and parking legally. It would be great if we could all park in front of our own homes.
Two experiences with Seattle parking cops: One, had just given me a ticket in U District and was like “next time, remember, it’s only a quarter for 8 minutes” as I was picking up Jimmy Johns. The other, on 42nd in the U District in front of the book store was I asked about an *incredibly* confusing sign about hours that seemed contradictory. She read the sign with me and said “It’s almost like if you add it all up, you can park there whenever you want, huh?” and then smiled.
Both cases they were totally cool, even though I did get a ticket in one.
I’m on the 4400 block of Bagley, and it’s the same deal there (and the same RPZ zoning permit required). My husband and I try to warn people about parking there. Sometimes they move, sometimes they figure they’ll take their chances. Once, my husband was berated by someone who got ticketed, I think because they thought he had called the parking cops on them.
We never call in parking violations because (1) we don’t really care, and (2) even if we did care, calling would be pointless since the street is patrolled regularly. The only truly annoying incident I’ve had with a parking enforcement officer was a few years ago, when a friend parked in front, came up to my door, and we chit-chatted for about five minutes while I gave her the guest parking pass. By the time she went back down to her car, guest pass in hand, she had a ticket.
The interesting thing the Time reporter told me was that your side of the street does not generate nearly as many tickets as our side (N of 45th).
Hi there — I am the Times columnist who wrote the piece. The 4400 block is also ticketed a lot — it’s probably the 2nd most ticketed block in Wallingford, but it is still way behind the 4500 block. If I recall correctly, in the same time period that the 4500 block got 2,500 tickets, the 4400 block had about 750.
Yea Cindy! While the 4500 block might be getting all the press, the 4400 block is no slouch in generating money for the city.
I got nailed the one and only night I parked there, running late for a nearby event (usually I just walk from home). The RPZ signs are indeed next to invisible at night: not only are they mounted uncharacteristically high on utility poles, not on their own metal poles at normal height like elsewhere in the neighborhood, they’re also frequently blocked by foliage from the perspective of a parking car (at night anyway).
Having said that, I appealed the ticket citing the mitigating factors, and was cleared by the court.
I do have to say I got ticketed once on Bagley (missed the RPZ sign that was way up on the sign post). However, I have to add the for the first time ever in my 45 years in Seattle, I saw a car this week get ticketed for parking less than 30′ from a stop sign (on Latona, up the street from the Green Lake Pool/Community Center). Those parking enforcement folks are definitely out in the ‘hoods these days.
I’ve got to say that I’m thrilled that they’re out here. A month or two ago, a car parked halfway across my shared driveway on 47th. My neighbor called it in, quite late at night. Parking Enforcement was here within minutes and wrote a ticket. The owner moved the car before the tow truck showed up, but they were out in less than half an hour. Try to get that kind of response from SPD for a home burglary!
The stats on how many tickets gave been written are incomplete without knowing how many fines have been paid. Anyone who has received 152 parking tickets (as mentioned in Gene’s article) is certainly not concerned with paying the fines associated with those tickets.