A few weeks before Christmas, I was the recipient of a $10 parking ticket for parking my Honda motor scooter beside the bike stands at the Monterey Rec Centre.
I had been parking there for more than a year. A phone conversation with the commissionaires got me nowhere and was a waste of time, so I just wrote the experience off and paid the penalty.
There was no recourse such as traffic court – tried, convicted and fined.
Last week I bumped into a former neighbour in Oak Bay, a pensioner like me, and he told me he got a ticket, too. Same location, same commissionaire, but it was for parking beside the large flower pots and not on the sidewalk.
We were both told to park in a full-sized vehicle spot, which seems a waste to me, as there is no designated motor scooter parking. I had mine knocked over once in an auto parking spot, so I hesitate to do so.
What happened to the discretionary ability of enforcement?
Our motor scooters do not block sidewalks, or take up much more room than a bicycle.
I will take a full-sized spot from now on, or maybe take my car that burns 10 times as much gas. This was $10 that the food bank didn’t get.
Ted Syme
Oak Bay