Parking Fire Hydrants

Yes, but if we had more guidance, fewer people would be ticketed, and the city's revenues would decline. You don't really think the city is interested in making life easier or more pleasant for its residents, do you?

And for its car owners (upon whom the city wishes 10 plagues, like in ancient Egypt)...

They paint the curb red in LA. Honestly it makes total sense to paint the curbs...you can't assume every driver is going to have a tape measure. At this point I don't even know what the law is without looking it up. I thought it was five feet from the hydrant, but recently I've heard 15. I know people regularly park within fifteen feet (really within zero feet) of the hydrant across the street from my building, and I can't remember seeing a ticket on any vehicle parked suchwise.

In a perfect world it ought to come down to a logical expression, such as "if a car is parked within a clearly delineated distance from a hydrant, established to be detrimental to the operation of a fire emergency vehicle, then ticket". What we seem to have, however, is, "nobody knows how far away you can park from this thing, and sometimes they'll nail you and sometimes they won't for totally arbitrary reasons."

Now, if they painted the curb in days gone by and people were still getting illegitimately nailed, all bets are off. People do like to cry "revenue stream" over matters like this, but I wonder what the cost-effectiveness is, given that a percentage is always going to fight an unfair ticket in court.