I picked up Belinda and drove her to a certain school in Schaumburg, Illinois. I had never been to this school before, so I needed to load its address into my GPS in order to find it. The GPS had me approach from the north and indicated to me that the school would be on my left. And it was. As soon as I saw the school, I began looking for the driveway entrance so I could pull in and drop her off at the curb near a door.
When I arrived at the entrance to the parking lot, I was confronted with two signs bracketing the entrance:
Click on any photo to biggysize it.
Stuck for what to do next, I sat for a moment. Then a large box truck came lumbering out of the parking lot and signaled the driver's intention to make a left turn onto the street I was on. As I was blocking his exit, and the passage of anyone who may have been behind me, I pulled over to the right. I had passed a crossing guard and a policeman who were standing beside the driveway, and I hoped to ask the policeman where I was supposed to drop off this special needs child. But, luckily for me, the policeman approached my car — and proceeded to write a ticket.
"You can't stop here." he said tersely.
I said, "I'm sorry. I was just trying--"
"I know you're sorry," he said, cutting me off, as he continued to take down my vehicle information.
He came around to the side of the car and noticed the girl in the back seat. "How old is she?"
"How the fuck would I know how old she is?!" It's what I wanted to say. My real answer was, "I don't know. I'm helping out the dispatcher by taking her here. I'm supposed to drop her at a door, but if I can't go in the parking lot, I don't know where I'm supposed to drop her off."
"You have to drop her outside the no stopping zone." He pointed ahead, and there I saw a sign made tiny by its distance from where I was illegally stopped.
"I can't just drop her off at the curb," I said. "I have to make sure she gets inside."
Then the cop showed some compassion. "I can take her in. I'm not a sworn officer. If I was a sworn officer I could cut you a break, but I can't cut you a break because I'm not a sworn officer."
Okay. I get it.
He handed me my ticket and took the frightened little girl by the hand and walked her to the school...I think. I never watched where he took her.
I fumed. I drove straight to the police station to dispute the citation, but when I got there I was told the hearing officer had just held hearings the night before, and then next hearing date was three weeks away. On May 9th. Today.
I drove back to the school and, parking outside the "No Parking, Stopping, Standing" zone, I pulled out my camera, handy for me since I've been doing Phlog, and captured the neat little trap the village of Schaumburg has set up at this particular school.
SIGNS
There are signs clearly marking the "No Parking, Stopping, Standing" zone. But they're on tall posts with a lot of inch-tall lettering on a foot-tall board that, at a distance of more than a few feet, you have to slow down just to read. And if you're trying to find the school using your GPS, and it tells you that the school is on the left side as you approach, and you're looking for the entrance to the parking lot, you're not going to see a stupid little sign to your right on a tall post with a foot-tall board with inch-high letters telling you that you can't stop in the zone.
Aside from the signs at the parking lot entrance, there's no indication of the restriction on using the parking lot to drop off or pick up children. If it's the first time you've ever come to the school, you don't know of the restriction until you're at the driveway, preparing to turn left, and then you're already stopped — INSIDE the "No Parking, Stopping, Standing" zone you don't even know you're in — while you read the signs telling you that you can't drop off kids in the parking lot.
And then, while you're stressed with a kid you have no place to drop off and a box truck waiting to get out through the entrance you're blocking, the next sign marking the other boundary of the "No Parking, Stopping, Standing" zone is far away beyond the capacity of your eyes to make out those tiny fucking letters!
Note the sign approximately 30
yards further away that you can
read clearly in comparison
to the one marking the zone
restriction in the foreground.
And that's what I told the hearing officer today, only without the profanity. Or the attitude. I gave him copies of the photos. He gave me "benefit of the doubt," and let me out of the ticket. The $40 stayed in my pocket!
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2 comments:
Yahoo! Go Tony!!
I knew you wouldn't have to pay it if you laid it out to them as you told us. Good for you! Now maybe the school will change the signs.
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