Ruler of the law applies to parking
Each infraction has a distance limit defined
Doug Paik thought he’d done everything right when he settled on a parking spot during a visit to the Pasqua Hospital to be at the bedside of a dying friend.
He pulled into a spot on King Street, just off Dewdney Avenue, as another car pulled away. He checked for any no parking signs. Seeing a parking enforcement officer across the street, Paik doublechecked.
“I purposely went over to him and said that’s my car over there. I pointed at it,” Paik recalled in a recent interview. “I said, can I park my car there?”
According to Paik, the officer replied, “No problem. Yeah, you can park there.” And so he did.
Paik later returned to a parking ticket on the windshield. The problem? His parking spot didn’t quite measure up. The ticket stated he was 6.3 metres from the intersection instead of the required 10 metres.
Faisal Kalim, the City of Regina’s manager of parking services, said the 10-metre rule is to ensure good sightlines and safety — “making sure that people can see vehicles and pedestrians when they are approaching an intersection.” It’s measured from the cross street as one looks down the curb. If there’s a painted crosswalk, it’s 10 metres from the painted line.
It’s not the only parking infraction governed by the ruler of the law. For example, a vehicle can’t park further than two metres from a parking meter, more than 0.6 metres from the curb, less than two metres from a driveway or three metres from an alley. He said the distances are established through national standards to ensure safety.
While some metered parking spots particularly in the downtown seem to run afoul of those rules, Kalim explained exemptions are allowed under the bylaw when it’s safe, such as on a one-way street.
While such measures have been in the city parking bylaw for years, Kalim agreed enforcement has increased in recent years after the city added more parking enforcement officers.
“That was based on the will of the community; the community was having issues with parking,” he added.
What most rankles Paik, who formerly lived in Regina and now calls Saskatoon home, is that he had checked with the parking officer and could have easily moved if told. Paik explained his situation in an online parking ticket review form on the city’s website and followed up by phone — to no avail.
He recently got a letter with a photo of his parked car reminding him payment was due, but nothing to indicate the officer he had spoken to was consulted. Paik had provided a detailed description, but didn’t have a badge number or name. “They didn’t address my comments in any way,” he said.
Kalim said parking enforcement officers are expected to be “ambassadors” in the field. “If somebody approaches and asks a parking question about a parking rule, certainly our expectation in the field is that the officer will be given an answer that is correct,” he said.
“My advice to this resident would be to call us, just to resolve our account so we can take a look and see what’s going on,” said Kalim, adding it’s possible Paik’s review hasn’t yet been processed, and he’s received only a form letter routinely issued prior to a summons.
Paik isn’t certain if the same officer he spoke to issued the ticket. He wonders if “they’re so hungry for money and they just ignore blatantly these facts, or it’s a matter of entrapment?”
But Kalim said there’s no intention to deliberately snare motorists. “There’s no incentive for an officer to try and entrap somebody,” he said.
“Absolutely no way” are there ticket-writing quotas, said Kalim. “If an officer walks down the street and they write no tickets, that’s a good scenario for us. That means everyone’s parked legally.”
Paik said he’ll likely just pay up since the costs of travelling to Regina to fight the ticket in court outweigh the fine.