Fixed Raises $650K More and Heads to Oakland

http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/03/fixed-the-app-that-fights-parking-tickets-raises-650k-more-and-heads-to-oakland/

by davidhegarty • 11 years ago

43 26 11 years ago

techcrunch.com

jasonwilk• 11 years ago

You guys need to come to Los Angeles

eCa• 11 years ago

heading to L.A. in March

ihaveajob2• 11 years ago

This makes me sad. If you make a mistake, own it. If you get a fair parking ticket, pay it. Don't be a leech. Cities have scarce resources that are not designed to fight people looking for loopholes.

fragsworth2• 11 years ago

If you make a mistake, own it.

But if the city makes the mistake, they shouldn't own it? It's their own rules, on their terms, designed to confuse newcomers. I can't fathom how you would think this is fair.

ihaveajob2• 11 years ago

Sure, if that's the case. In my experience, though, these services simply contest everything in the hope that the officer in charge or the ticket will not have time to follow up, and the case will get thrown out even if it's a perfectly reasonable fine. It works, but that doesn't make it right.

matthewarkin• 11 years ago

My issue is that I'll happily own up to my mistake if the amount I have to pay is fair. A $60 parking ticket obtained during the $.25 an hour rate seems unfair when the street is half empty.

akgerber• 11 years ago

The idea is that the fine is high because they can't catch every parking violation.

Likewise, the fine for fare-beating on mass transit is much higher than a transit fare, because it's very unlikely you've been caught on your first offense.

Parking is hard in the big city because it requires a lot of a very expensive resource (urban land)— maybe you shouldn't drive if you're unable to handle the responsibility.

(I personally am not very sympathetic to the many entitled drivers who feel free to park on the sidewalk, or in a bicycle lane, or a crosswalk, or by committing some other antisocial act, and am especially unsympathetic to those drivers who feel their ease of parking outweighs the need to build the necessary infrastructure for high-quality mass transit and safe walking and biking.)

nbaman_233• 11 years ago

Being a minute late to a meter shouldn't constitute a $60+ fine. If being a "leech" means recuperating exorbitant fines that are primarily in place to increase revenue (so more money can be wasted), then count me in. I'm not trying to spend money allocated for my water and gas bills to pay a ticket that was issued for parking at a meter one minute after it had expired. I understand that yes, an honest mistake was made, but it didn't cause $60+ worth of inconveniences to the city.

Kalium• 11 years ago

The fines aren't there to increase revenue, though that's a perk. They are there to encourage you to make do without a car in SF.

chaqke• 11 years ago

Some people have scarce resources and are not "designed" to fight a bureaucratic machine that was designed to not process their potentially-valid complaints.

I've certainly gotten erroneous tickets in the past.

Secondarily, I'd support ending the practice of generating revenue by statistically extracting a large amount from a few people - people whose demographic doesn't overlap much with those who can pay for permanent garages or parking lots....This makes me happy.

mahyarm• 11 years ago

Using this app wastes less time than the official ways to pay the ticket. That alone is valuable. Automated contesting is also good too.

Also if you've read the article you can see cities are not angels either. If you have seen what happens in traffic court when judges don't even want to hear 3 sentences of your evidence and just declare you guilty anyway. The appeal process after that is expensive. You waste a ton of time and money going to that court, while you have a job. And maybe needing to hire lawyers just so you can get heard.

It's an exploitive system that takes advantage of asymmetries and it deserves to be challenged.

shebson• 11 years ago

I tend to agree, but there is still a place for this app. SF's parking enforcement and the appeals process is thoroughly broken. I know several people who have lost appeals when they parked at a broken meter despite having taken photos or videos showing that meter wasn't working (and in SF, signs on parking meters indicate that parking at broken meters is legal as long as you stay within posted time limits).

ars4• 11 years ago

You (and they) should write the state after Oakland - there are many Oaklands.

tizzdogg3• 11 years ago

But only one that is a "neighboring city" to San Francisco (CA).

ars4• 11 years ago

It doesn't say San Francisco in the title.

nbaman_233• 11 years ago

For L.A. residents, this is pretty wild. Drives me nuts. This is what happens when bureaucratic agencies run wild, with no one but helpless citizens to hold them accountable [emphasis added]. This is why this is such a great idea!

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/11/12/city-leaders-react...

Fixed Raises $650K More and Heads to Oakland

Related Stories