Parking ticket

[RockinTheLockdown]

Today, myself and my colleague drove separately to a meeting, she arrived before me and parked in an on-street bay. I parked behind her. Neither of us was aware / checked that there was a 2-hour parking restriction. When we left together 4 hours later, we got back to our cars and found that I had been given a parking ticket, but she had not!!

While the parking ticket was wholly deserved, I feel a bit aggrieved that I got one and she didn’t. I don’t want my colleague to get a ticket but at the same time it is not reasonable for the parking warden to ticket my car and not hers. WWYD?

You say she was in a bay where you?

What can you do?
Pay the ticket and move on. You're surely not considering trying to get your colleague a ticket???

I'd take it that she got lucky and think no more of it!

What do you mean WWYD? What can you do, apart from pay your parking ticket?

Or are you expecting your colleague to pay half, or planning to try and get one issued to her too?

You both parked where you shouldn't have, you got caught, nothing to be done apart from pay the ticket and park elsewhere the next time surely

I was parked in the bay directly behind her.

Of course I’m not.

Of course I don’t want her to get a ticket, nor do I expect her to split the ticket with me. Why would you think that?

I was thinking more about whether I should contact the council and ask how they decide which cars should be ticketed!

Maybe it was the council workers tea break.

I would not bother. You will get a wishy washy non reply and your ticket will still stand.

Just leave it. It’s not worth the mental energy you’re expending on it. Pay asap for the lower rate.

I was thinking about something similar on the way home from work, as I was considering reporting something from someone else at work that (I realised) doesn't actually affect me. I was pondering why people report people for stuff like that and thought maybe it's the sense that they (the person who reports) are losing something by seeing the other person "get away with" something that they (the person who reports) haven't got away with.

Unfortunately, her getting a ticket won't affect your ticket in the slightest (or you) because "they were doing it too" is not a defence anywhere, as unfair as it is. But it would make her feel the same feelings you're feeling about getting this ticket. Which would be a bit shit for her (just like it's shit for you).

I'm imagining her car must be less distinctive than yours for this to have happened. Maybe there are other times in life where you've narrowly escaped the consequences that other people haven't?

I work for my LA for areas with a timed parking restriction the warden will generally go around and input all registration numbers into a hand held device. They will have a route to follow and will revisit at end of two hours or someone else will follow. It could be as simple as operator error in putting licence plate or they were coming up to shift end when they wrote your ticket and didn’t recheck cars after yours.

You are asking WWYD, what do you think the options are?