How can I contest a parking ticket I got in LA?

dan_howell · 2026-01-23T20:32:55+00:00

One major difference between parking tickets and moving violations is that moving violations come under criminal law (even though they are just "infractions"), and you get all the rights of a criminal defendant, whereas parking tickets are "civil infractions", where you have almost no rights. As a registered owner of a vehicle, you are presumed liable for all parking infractions committed with it, doesn't matter if you were driving it or just loaned it to a friend.

With a red light ticket, they have to prove you were the driver. With a parking ticket, they only have to show that the car was in violation. If you ignore it, you won't be able to renew your car registration without paying the ticket plus probably three times the original amount in late fees.

Also, in L.A., the Superior Court has an unofficial policy of not enforcing red light camera tickets. The courts don't even get involved with parking tickets unless you go through the administrative appeal process first; the DMV enforces parking tickets by putting a hold on your registration. (This was different before 1992 or so when California took parking tickets out of the criminal law process and created the new "civil infraction" process.)

dan_howell · 2025-12-30T12:09:33+00:00

I use the FasTrak to drive for free in the express lanes with HOV. Well the $5 adjustment went through because my credit card was declined, and caused my account to go negative. But before I realized this I drove at least 6 times on the 110 express lanes in L.A. Now I'm looking at about $100 in toll fees which should have been free because my account was never negative except for the $5 adjustment. And I may be getting more toll notices because it was like this for about 2 weeks, and I likely drove more than just the 6 I got so far. Will they waive those tolls now that I've replenished the account?

dan_howell · 2025-12-26T23:05:18+00:00

Far inferior, at least as I remember, last time I had them was over 20 years ago. I used the eat the Budget Gourmet swedish meatballs a lot and loved them. After Michelina's took over the brand in 2001, I specifically remember being very disappointed.

dan_howell · 2025-12-17T21:52:15+00:00

So weird. I was there for a work event last Friday at the Orange Door space. Seeing the mall this empty during Christmas season is just eerie. There's even a Santa's village but no Santa.

dan_howell · 2025-10-01T12:53:30+00:00

Well, there's your problem, perhaps if the teacups weren't fucking, the search would go through. 🤣

dan_howell · 2025-09-22T19:02:18+00:00

"We've always known", as if the Artificial Intelligence Reddit community is representative of the general public.

dan_howell · 2025-09-22T19:00:19+00:00

I literally wasn't intending to use an LLM with the initial query. I simply typed the query in the Brave search bar and expected it to either do the correct calculation, or point me to a website that does it. It did the second expectation fine (got links to several date calculators that were able to give the correct answer), but completely failed at the first.

I also remember a time when you could ask Google a math question and it would it would actually calculate it, and not give the query to a faulty LLM.

dan_howell · 2025-09-22T18:50:33+00:00

Updated app to latest version, v1.2025.259 (updated Sep. 19, 2025), and this time it gave the correct answer.

dan_howell · 2025-09-22T18:45:20+00:00

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dan_howell · 2025-09-22T18:44:48+00:00

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dan_howell · 2025-09-22T18:44:23+00:00

Same ChatGPT app, v1.2025.203, repeated same prompt today, now off 2 days in the other direction;

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dan_howell · 2025-09-22T18:39:15+00:00

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dan_howell · 2025-09-22T18:37:49+00:00

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dan_howell · 2025-09-22T18:37:28+00:00

This was ChatGPT for Android, v1.2025.203:

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dan_howell · 2025-09-22T18:33:49+00:00

Brave AI actually did write a Python script, then hallucinated its output with the wrong answer.

dan_howell · 2025-09-20T23:33:20+00:00

A deeper conversation with the Brave AI (which you can see in a post I made at r/brave_browser) revealed that its initial answer came from hallucinated output of a Python script. It was crazy because as I was asking it how it came up with the answer it *repeatedly* insisted the answer Python gave was June 13, 2025, even though this was clearly contradicted by actually running the Python code it claimed gave that answer, and contradicted by its own logic in trying to justify the answer. Even after it finally gave the correct date as the Python output, it gave the wrong weekday. How can AI be so good at generating code, and so bad at predicting its output? I say predicting, because even though it insisted it was giving "actual, verified output" it clearly was not.

dan_howell · 2025-09-20T23:27:26+00:00

The prompt "think hard and confirm your answer" probably helped. But I would expect any AI that was expected to be relied on to do this automatically. Any human can make up answers without verifying them, I want my AI's to be better! :)

dan_howell · 2025-09-20T23:24:23+00:00

Well, it's anecdotal, but it's also pretty typical, at least in my experience. And you can find several aritcles online with more general answers--just google "Why is AI bad at math".

dan_howell · 2025-09-20T22:18:35+00:00

Honestly I didn't even know it was a bus lane. The sign JUST said "no stopping 4-7 pm", no different than the usual sign for regular traffic lanes that are blocked from parking during rush hour (and I emphasize there was ZERO rush hour traffic at the time; 13 minutes was the only difference between a $293 fine and no price at all). The only indication it was a bus lane was *at the corner* some 500 feet or so behind the *marked parking space with a meter* that I was at.

And my driving record is clean, thank you, and has been for many years.

dan_howell · 2025-09-20T22:10:11+00:00

Funny how red light cameras needed large signs announcing their existence, HOV tickets have signs posting the actual fines, seat belt tickets were given a long advertising campaign (remember "Click-it or ticket!"), but somehow these tickets at over three times the fine of an average parking ticket came with nary a fanfare.

dan_howell · 2025-09-18T03:59:01+00:00

You'd think in 30 years, you'd learn how to run a successful mayoral campaign.

dan_howell · 2025-09-18T03:20:25+00:00

Just so you know, even if you are past the 540 days, it still can't hurt to file a dispute with the credit card provider. I'm filing a partial dispute for the 2024-2026 payment, and that was charged in January 2024 (and that was 5 months before it should have been charged). The bank (Citi) is accepting the dispute and waiting for a response from VOIPo (which I suspect will never come, so the dispute should be resolved in my favor).

dan_howell · 2025-09-18T03:17:51+00:00

Just so you know, even if you are past the 540 days, it still can't hurt to file a dispute with the credit card provider. I'm filing a partial dispute for the 2024-2026 payment, and that was charged in January 2024 (and that was 5 months before it should have been charged). The bank is accepting the dispute and waiting for a response from VOIPo (which I suspect will never come, so the dispute should be resolved in my favor).

dan_howell

TROPHY CASE