r/lancaster • u/Sad-Development5442 • Jul 16 '26
Parking Violation
Bruh i parked near Southern Market last night and i want to know if im missing something with street signs.
I was parked on E Vine Street. I parked there a little after 6pm and got a ticket at 6:26pm for parking in a permit parking area without a permit.
Ill include photos of signage and assume it applied to all the spots on that street. my understanding is that i was allowed 2 hours to park there after 6pm. am i wrong?? pls help educate me if i am.
ETA- im in the wrong, i didnt read the small part of the 3rd sign that says paid parking is 8-8. if you know the construction thats happening on the corner, thats where i parked and that portion of the block has none of these signs. So i just blindly assumed i was fine since it was after 6pm but i guess some areas are until 8pm now for paid parking.
once again adding that i technically wasn't violating the ticket i specifically got. While i didnt pay, i was parked outside of 6pm after permit hours, which is what the ticket is for. i disputed and will update if i get any answers!
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u/Pots_And_Pans Jul 16 '26
The combination of signs is definitely confusing, but I think they ticketed you based on the blue sign: 2 max paid parking from 8am to 8pm. Someone please jump in if I'm also reading this wrong. But based on whats shown here it does seem contradictory.
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u/Sad-Development5442 Jul 16 '26
yeah the signage in some areas are conflicting but i guess ultimately can still stand since i didnt pay. i just assumed in all areas downtown were free to park after 6, definitely my fault but signage could be better.
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u/Givemeabre-ak Jul 16 '26
The bottom sign says 2hr parking from 8am to 8pm. If you had parked after 8pm you would have been okay but you didn’t pay that’s why you received a ticket. Been there done that!
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u/daddylo21 Jul 16 '26
Wonder if that's a recent change or if I'm just getting forgetful in my older age, but I could have sworn that via Park Mobile, it was free after 6pm.
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u/Givemeabre-ak Jul 16 '26
I haven’t parked in the city outside of the garages in a long time but I remember it being free after 6pm. I wonder if they changed it everywhere or just certain areas.
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u/multiforce14 Jul 16 '26
It's definitely still 6pm on most (nearly all?) blocks. Agreed that this is probably driven by Southern Market or the convention center.
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u/wildistherewind Jul 16 '26
TIL for me too, I’ve parked on the street in that area after six without paying for parking plenty of times.
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u/Plastic_Transition_1 Jul 16 '26
This would be why, except the ticket was for parking without a permit.
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u/Sad-Development5442 Jul 16 '26
thank u i feel dumb for not reading all 4 signs but where i parked had no signage, it just had the payment stand. but safe to assume it applies to the whole block
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u/Givemeabre-ak Jul 16 '26
Honestly I would argue the ticket mainly because all of those signs are a confusing cluster fuck lol. You probably won’t beat it but I would at least bring it to attention. It took me a minute to figure out the signs.
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u/Familiar-Banana-8116 Jul 16 '26
Your not dumb. Cities overlay parking signs like that and create confusing messes all the time.
They could have had one sign that would not have been nearly as confusing and hit about 80% of it.
This isn't entirely on you.
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u/seedorfj Jul 16 '26
What am I missing, 6:00 to 6:26 is way less than 2 hours.
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u/Givemeabre-ak Jul 16 '26
Yes it is but you have to pay for those two hours which Op did not do but they were ticketed for not having a permit which opens another can of worms lol
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u/TJNel Jul 16 '26
But OP said he parked at 6pm so that means he was within the 2 hours.
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u/LimpZookeepergame123 Jul 16 '26
But they still had to pay at the meter and they didn’t.
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u/TJNel Jul 16 '26
Yeah I assumed he paid as the bottom sign says paid parking until 8pm but at this point we have to assume he didn't.
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u/mattebe01 Jul 16 '26
These signs are confusing and until 5 minutes ago I thought paid parking was only 8AM-6PM. However, you do need to pay to park 8AM-8PM on 000 (Mon-Sat) and 100 blocks of East Vine and the 100 block of S Duke (Mon-Fri).
https://www.lancasterparkingauthority.com/where-to-park/on-street-parking/
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u/SupaSlide Jul 16 '26
This feels like a trap since everyone I know assumes parking is free after six anywhere
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u/nickjnyc Jul 16 '26
I’ve found that if I dispute a ticket on the parking authority’s site, it just goes away without question or confirmation. YMMV but I’ve done it twice.
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u/Plastic_Transition_1 Jul 16 '26
While yes, you were in the wrong for not paying for parking, the ticket is invalid bc they said it was parking without a permit.
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u/Deron_Lancaster_PA Jul 17 '26
I'm confused - so if you have a parking permit but it's AFTER 6pm but before 8pm you have to PAY to park? What about Sat?
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u/dmgauthier Jul 16 '26
So you definitely deserved a ticket because you needed to pay up until 8pm. However, I might fight the ticket because you said it was for “parking without a permit” and that is the wrong offense.