Demanding Answers: Ignored Parking Rules Making A Street Slalom For Drivers
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - If you've got a taste for slalom skiing, where you have to ski between poles or gates, you'll love driving on Jefferson Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
On alternate side of the street parking days, neighbors dump their cars in the middle of the street, causing a local "carmageddon," forcing cars and trucks to swerve around the parked obstacles, reports CBS2's Marcia Kramer.
"It's ridiculous, you know when you first turn and see a car standing still with no lights on, that could be very dangerous," said Janice Flores.
"It's horrible, because you can crash into any car and then the police come to you and think it's your fault," said Richard Cineo.
CBS2 discovered that the car slalom course pops up every Tuesday and Friday on a five-block stretch of Jefferson Avenue.
Motorists can't double park during the 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. street sweeping schedule because they get hit with tickets for blocking the bike lane
Even after the street sweeper has come and gone, the cars remain in the middle of the street.
"I think they should give out tickets," said Bushwick resident Ronald Hines. "Taxpayers pay their taxes, but it's just not right."
CBS2 didn't see any tickets being given out, so Kramer tried to find out why not, demanding answers first from two sanitation officers parked nearby, and again from an NYPD traffic enforcement officer. All replied with "no comment."
The agent could not drive away fast enough, but the irony was he encountered the cars parked in the middle of the street and he, too, had to swerve around them – and he didn't stop to give out tickets.
This is one driving nightmare that will apparently remain a fact of life. The NYPD says its police officers and traffic agents have discretion, apparently meaning to not issuing tickets.