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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    California
    Posts
    1

    Default Contesting Parking Ticket Based on Sign Legibility

    My question involves a traffic citation from the state of: California.

    I received a $52 parking ticket at 9:25 on August 7th in San Diego's Balboa Park for a violation of SDMC 86.09 (E) Violation of Signs.

    The parking sign was difficult to read (see photo). It has five lines of small type and two different sets of conditions: 1. No Parking Midnight-7am and 2. No Parking on Wednesday until 10am. I'm thinking about contesting it on the grounds that it's confusing and illegible.

    According to the California MUTCD 2012, California adheres to the standards set forth in the FHWA

    Questions



    Thanks for your help.






    http://i1331.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5f441ea9.jpg

    Otis

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    CT & IL
    Posts
    5,273

    Default Re: Contesting Parking Ticket Based on Sign Legibility

    sign seems fine to me...it would be to a judge.

    Read the ticket and looks at the requirements needed to be on it ... this is how most parking tickets are won.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    OH10
    Posts
    17,019

    Default Re: Contesting Parking Ticket Based on Sign Legibility

    A park is not regular road. MUTCD parameters do not apply unless a law specifically says they do.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: Contesting Parking Ticket Based on Sign Legibility

    Although the current version of the MUTCD makes it applicable to publicly owned parking areas, and it's worth a shot if that's all you have to work with, the MUTCD does not provide a defense to a traffic offense absent something else in the law (statute, regulation, case law, elements of the offense) that makes it a defense. I can picture a hearing officer responding to you, "You're right, the exceptions are small and hard to read, but the part that says 'No Parking' is plenty big - if all you saw on the sign was 'No Parking", why did you think you should ignore the sign?"

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    LA LA Land
    Posts
    9,170

    Default Re: Contesting Parking Ticket Based on Sign Legibility

    Quote Quoting Otis B Driftwood
    View Post
    For the type restriction on the sign you violated, several of the R30 signs up to and including several of the R38 sign variety would work for a No Parking -Certain Times sign. But you're not going to find a specific size sign or a particular size font. While you might find a 18" X 30' sing, or a 12" X 18", the regulatory authority can choose to blow the sign up into twice those sizes if they so choose.

    From Section 2E.14 Size and Style of Letters and Signs on page 399 of the 2012 Ca MUTCD, it says:

    Sign size is determined primarily in terms of the length of the message and the size of the lettering necessary for proper legibility.


    And so the 1.5 inch size you're attempting to make into a "minimum" isn't so. It simply is the associated height of the letters that would allow that long of a message to fit on that size sign.

    In fact here is another similar sign and you can see that the small letters there are much shorter than 1.5 inches:

    http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/traffops/si...ecs/R38(S).pdf

    Quote Quoting Otis B Driftwood
    View Post
    How do I establish that the type on the sign is too small. Do I need to or can I just assert that it is?
    The reasonable man rule will prevail here... If a reasonable man were to look at that sign, would he be able to read it and understand it?

    No offense intended but the answer is "yes". For someone standing that close to it who is not looking at it through an unfocused camera, it is neither illegible nor confusing!

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