Parkd illeglly (lack of pkg @station)Call polce proactively?

[VEFF]

Sorry for the short words, but I wanted the title to be a descriptive as possible:

Once again, the daily parking hassles in a growing town (well everything is growing except parking) at the train station.

This morning I couldn't find any parking (not even the space some idiots
occupy completely blocking other commuters who are forced to wait in the lot if they get home earlier than the 'blocker' and also not in the 2 "embankment" spots where you actually park you're car on the grass on a hill) right next to each of the two last official spots (facing each other) of the parking lot.

I drove to the my backup:
police station / fire station area, where there are some spots
between the police and fire stations that are legal.
Unfortunately they are rebuilding the fire house to give the firemen a brand new firehouse, which means they have coned off many of those spots.
That combined with an every-growing commuter base, and I couldn't
even find a spot at my backup.
There was one spot, but the worker there said he needed the space. The cones weren't exactly marking that space, but he was nice and asked me to move.
The construction worker told me to (suggested) park at the firehouse lot; there were lots of empty spaces.
There is a sign "For firemen only", so it is definitely officially
illegal.

Now here is my question:

Do I:
1) Hope that nobody is having a bad day AND nobody reports me
and wait till I get home tonight, with my fingers crossed.

2) Call the police now (proactively) and tell them why I parked illegally (i.e. lack of space and include the part about the lone construction worker who was on site), and hope they are sympathetic and appreciate my advance notice, and decide not to ticket me.
I know this second approach could theoretically backfire and I coudl get a ticket.

Any advice would be appreciated.
I would also like feedback, since I am sure others here have similar stories.

I almost damaged the underside of my car yesterday due to the slope of the embankment and the lack of clearance (I don't have a SUV) underneath the car, but backed up promptly before going too far down the hill...

Starting off every day like this is crazy.

I don't have kids, so the portio of my taxes that are used to pay for schools and the multi-million dollar library (mostly used by students) are
for nought.
The least they could do is provide alternate parking (maybe make 25 spots on one of the side streets near the station).

[MonteLDS]

i am not sure about calling the police. I think that they may think that their is NO EXCUSE to park in a spot that is marked VERY clearly as you stated. So if you call them they might just ticket you. You may either take your chances or turn yourself in....

[VEFF]

Thanks!
I had asked two colleagues today:
One colleague said the same thing as you.
Another said it can't hurt to call the police proactively.

I think I may just take my chances, even though it is $44 (+$2 if I pay online).
I think tomorrow, while it is still light out, I will drive around the neighborhood and see if I find any other possiblities within a reasonable distance (5- 6 minutes by foot) from the train station.

I forgot to mention in my original post that, this morning at least, my car was the only one in that section.
Maybe the firefighters don't go to the station until they get back from their day jobs...

That is either
1) good because I am not taking up someone's spot
or
2) bad because my car stands out like a sore thumb.

[NoSmartz]

Don't ever dime yourself out.Always play stupid and act like you didn't know the rules.

E

[VEFF]

Thanks!

If nothing else (if I do get a ticket), I'll go into the station (right there anyway) and tell them that the sole construction worker had cones up and told me to park by the firehouse.
That is the truth, even if maybe he doesn't have the authority to decide where parking is allowed, and he didn't know how many hours I'd be gone...

[VEFF]

Well the worrying was for nought.

No ticket! Then again, I left work substantially earlier than usual today:
1) I have had a cold the last few days and felt lousy yesterday afternoon;
I could have stayed home today, but I wanted to get some things done today, and I have just been on vacation twice...
2) I am going to do some work from home tonight to provide a report around 10 PM or so, so the boss has OKed us leaving early or coming in late; she is flexible.
3) I would have probably stayed an hour later if I had been parked legally, because my cold wasn't as bad as yesterday.
I will get more rest though, now that the weekend has arrived.

PS: It is 9 degrees Fahrenheit right now (w/o the wind chill) according to Weatherbug.
It didn't feel all that bad to me though.
I believe that is about -13 Celcius.

I was on vacation in Wyoming in mid winter once and it was
-20 F every night without the wind chill.
During the day it got up to about 30 F and was sunny, so we actually opened our ski jackets at times!

[NoSmartz]

Man that's cold.Best I can do here in Dallas is 2 days ago it was 19 degrees.That ain't -20 below that's for sure but it's cold for Texas.
I would rather worry about my car insurance going up than be moral in a traffic situation like that.A wreck would be different but parking,that's like j-walkin',don't give it a 2nd thought until you get a ticket and then you can learn from it.You payin your bills is more important than that city payin' their's.

[VEFF]

I know what you mean.
At least a parking ticket doesn't result in any points being added to your license.

Some recent headaches at the parking lot:
1) The thing is I already got one ticket for SUPPOSEDLY "blocking the driveway" at the train station(which I didn't do since there was enough room for TWO car widths to get by; someone complained, so the police had to give me a ticket).
Today there were TWO cars doing the same thing. Actually
every day now there is (at least) one car blocking the driveway (if you want to call it that) and I haven't seen any of them getting tickets...
I guess nobody complained in those cases.

2) Many times people park five feet behind/away from other cars, leaving them barely any room to get out at night.
Some people have to wait for other commuters to get back (i.e. on later trains e.g.) before they can leave, because they have been blocked in by
uncaring fellow commuters.

3) The other day a car was right up against someone. There is no way the other commuter could get out, if he took an earlier train home than the one who blocked him.

4) A SUV needlessly backed into my old car (traded in in November) when parking because he has too aggressive, there was nothing in front of him, so he didn't need to be so close. Luckily his trailer hitch thing went into my license plate and not my car.
It left a deep dent in the plate (the spot on the plate was exactly where the opening in the front air dam on my car was), otherwise it would have cracked or broken my front bumper.

5) Last year (with old car) I scraped the bottom (not badly) on some hardened snow/ice in the lot, to get the last spot where they hadn't plowed because it was grass.

6) As I mentioned in my original post (OP):
I almost damaged the underside of my car yesterday due to the slope of the embankment and the lack of clearance (I don't have a SUV) underneath the car, but backed up promptly before going too far down the hill...
I looked carefully at the underbody/underside of the car last night with a flashlight and this afternoon in the daylight and everything seems fine; sigh of relief.
The noise was minor and I was driving very slowly since I was parking on a hill, but with an almost new car, you just want to be extra careful.
Also because you are facing downhill, when the scraping noise is heard, you are not just going forward but downard and the weight of the car can be PUSHING DOWN ON THE UNDERSIDE, since the back of the car wasn't on the drop-off/hill yet (hard to explain, but think of it as driving on a flat section and then getting to an incline; for a little while the front is going down the hill, while the back wheels and back of car are still on the flat paved section, WHICH IS THE ONLY REAL REASON I WAS EVEN WORRIED ABOUT IT.
I checked the underside with a flashlight and everything seems perfect.
I'm probably being a bit anal; but when the problem occurs because the township refuses to do anything about parking, it is frustrating, especially with a relatively new car.
If I did it when there was parking somewhere else or I was goofing off, it would be MY own fault and I could live with it...

[Ian]

2) Many times people park five feet behind/away from other cars, leaving them barely any room to get out at night.
Some people have to wait for other commuters to get back (i.e. on later trains e.g.) before they can leave, because they have been blocked in by
uncaring fellow commuters.

lol.. I'd never do this myself but you could buy an old truck and back up and it wouldn't really matter if you hit their cars. These inconsiderate bastards would quickly learn not to park people in.

[NoSmartz]

That old truck idea,let's expand on that.How bout you stick 2 old tires on it.
1 on the front,1 on the back.Let's say it would be a nudge in the right direction.I had a friend who did that exact thing.Damage was none 'cause back then cars were made of STEEL!!!!Or you could get a small car like a Prius or somethin' and when you think you can't get out you could get someone passing by to help you pick it up and move it in to the go position.Lack of consideration is so frustrating.You can't shake common sense into inconsiderate people.Just look at it like this,they don't know any better 'cause their stupid.(parkin' crowders)

E

[Ian]

Yeah, I used to know a guy who would "make room" if he couldn't fit into a spot on the street.

[VEFF]

Yeah, I used to know a guy who would "make room" if he couldn't fit into a spot on the street.

I had a reply for your earlier suggestion, but I had to reboot and decided to scrap it because I was in the middle of editing it.
The old truck idea was funny, if nothing else

Speaking of the post about making room though:
I once saw a guy in NYC - this was years ago in a bar after a softball game for the league the company I worked for participated in - make space.
The only thing is he smacked into one or both cars (in front of and behind his car) pretty darn hard, instead of just nudging them.

I don't know if he:
1) couldn't care less about anyone else's property
2) was drunk
3) was a bad driver
4) was having a bad day - not that that is an excuse
5) all of the above


Another time in the park:
This young, immature kid who the gang played street hockey on rollerblades with, almost proudly, told a bunch of us haning out in the park that, in his drunkenness, he had side swiped a car (pretty badly) on his way home from a bar or party.
The police came to his house (I guess there was witness?), but he told them he didn't do it and his car was parked in the garage (I don't remember all the details since this was years ago as well).

Another time we were in NYC having a pre-wedding get together at a hotel's bar the night before my brother's (and my) friend's wedding.
All of a sudden we heard loud sounds.
Some person (presumably drunk or incapacitated in some other way) had side swiped hall a block worth of cars!!! The tow truck was there to remove them one by one.
Unbelievable!

[NoSmartz]

ahhh the good ole days!

E