Got Towed Today on Luquer Street

jane jacobs

$185 for the tow and $165 for the ticket! Watch out for this street. There are two "pedestrian ramps" that look like driveways leading to nowhere. We thought it was an old driveway no longer in use since it led to a brick wall. Turns out it's a pedestrian ramp that isn't marked and has no sign letting drivers know not to park there. Instead, the tow trucks know they have an easy mark and apparently, according to people who live on the block, they come and tow several times a day.

One neighbor showed us how the pedestrian ramp on the other side of the street which is supposedly a crosswalk, again unmarked, has a fire hydrant blocking any access by a wheelchair.

The other pedestrian ramp a few feet away doesn't even have a ramp on the other side of the street and is not even remotely a crosswalk and also leads to a brick wall or stoop.

Two different people on the block told us our car probably got towed and wasn't stolen like we first feared. They said it happens all the time on this block between Court and Smith Streets on Luquer Street. They have complained to the powers that be and even put up a sign to warn others. The sign was taken down by the DOT because it wasn't "official."

If the city was truly concerned about giving access to disabled people by providing these pedestrian ramps, then they would put up signs to prevent people from blocking them with their cars instead of spending money on gas and personnel to tow cars away.

A simple sign or yellow paint would do the trick.

Where can we go to fight this? Has anyone else had this happen to them? Is there any recourse?

modsquad

forgetaboutit! You actually admit you're guilty. You thought it "was an old driveway no longer in use since it led to a brick wall"? A curb cut is a curb cut. Even if it was leading to a brick wall someone might still be paying the city a tax on that cut which entitles him to the same protection a "used " driveway has. The only hope you have of fighting this is finding the agency within DOT that is in charge of sidewalk curb cuts to see if this is a legal cut. There is no proof that this was a city installed ramp. If no permit was issued for this you might have a chance. A lot of people in Brooklyn install illegal driveways without permits or they stop paying the tax on an existing curb cut which of course requires them to fill it in. Many never do. Take a week off and let us know what you find. Good luck!

jane jacobs

I'm not the only one:

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/05/563.asp

It wasn't a driveway it was a very dangerous pedestrian ramp in the middle of the block and not at the corner.

whynot_31

Jane Jacobs, your namesake hated cars, so I'm not sure why you are advising people how to protect them.

jane jacobs

Trying to protect people in wheelchairs from using so called pedestrian ramps in the middle of a block between parked cars.

It's the same block that has a no parking sign on school days where people are ticketed and in fact there hasn't been a school there for over two years.

arock75

I was ticketed and towed in a very similar situation in Manhattan several years ago. I fought the ticket at an appeal hearing and brought pictures. It was no use and I thought I made a good case as to the "ramp" location offering no safe place to cross a busy street with no traffic signal, there was no marking or sign to indicate not to park there. The law is pretty straighforward and odds are you will lose an appeal and waste your time. This is a very sneaky law by the city but they make revenue and unless you are ticketed and towed no one is going to protest a law to aid wheelchair access regardless of how it is applied and if every "ramp" is actually a ramp.

daver

You can certainly try to fight it if you feel strongly enough about it. I suspect that what it will come down to though is that it isn't up to you to decide whether the curb cuts are useful or reasonable, the fact that they are there means that you can't park there. Sorry. I definitely agree with your points, but I fear that the court will not give them weight as to dismissal. Other than knocking down the ticket cost a bit.