Aussie driver fined $92 over confusing spot — would you park here?
Many people agreed the spot looked like a parking space, but others were not so convinced.
A Melbourne driver who says they copped a $92 fine over a perplexing parking spot has sparked a lively debate online by asking a simple question: would you park your car here?
The driver posted a photo of their car at the end of a long row of parking spaces with a painted white T on the right side of the car, but not the left. “Would you have thought this was a parking spot?” they captioned the image on Reddit on Tuesday.
“There’s no signs, and it’s not in front of a driveway. There’s no bay marking on the LHS [left hand side].”
When one person responded that they would because “the line is still open” and “would be a closed angle inwards if it wasn’t a park”, the original poster agreed: “That’s what I thought! I just saw I got a $92 fine for parking here.”
The driver said the offence listed on their ticket was “711 parked — not completely within a parking bay”. “There’s no signs. I just assumed from the painted ’T’ that it was a spot,” they wrote, adding it is about 25 metres from an intersection.
The driver then uploaded a second image of the area from Google Maps showing a car parked the exact same spot, which appears to be less than a metre from someone’s driveway.
Parking spot sparks debate
Hundreds of people have left their two cents' worth on the Reddit post, with numerous users admitting they would have also assumed it was a parking spot. Others encouraged them to contest the fine.
“Yeah, thats a parking spot for sure. There's no sign post indicating No Parking, and the markings on the road are open indicating it's a spot,” one person said. “Yeah contest that. No sign, not blocking the driveway, and the line is open in that direction,” someone else wrote, while a third added: “If it were a no parking spot, those idiots should have made an L type angle mark and not a T marking.”
One woman said they grew up in the area and has parked in the location on “so, so many occasions”. “It’s definitely a parking spot, and definitely not blocking the driveway. Contest away!”
Driver vows to contest fine
However, not everyone was convinced, with several people urging the driver to just pay the fine.
“No that’s not a parking spot, you have to park in between the bays marked and in this case no bay is marked where you are parked. So the infringement notice is correct,” one person said, with another adding that “if parking bay lines are painted you have to park within a single bay.”
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“This implies the bay extends on forever, which it clearly doesn’t…Basic logic says it’s not a bay because theres no parallel line on the opposite side. Sorry OP, you’re done,” someone else wrote.
While some people argued it is a violation to park within three metres of a driveway, according to Victoria Roads, there is no defined measurement for parking near a driveway. Yahoo News Australia has contacted Victoria Roads for comment regarding the specific parking space.
The original poster vowed to contest the fine in several comments, revealing they are “living pay check to pay check”.
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