Don’t park, it’s a trap!
Coney Island motorists are second-guessing a metered parking spot at the intersection of W. 10th Street and Surf Avenue because the space overlaps with a crosswalk.
“It’s absolutely confusing!” said resident Wayne Henry. “I was having a debate with some guy the other day about whether or not he could park there.”
A meter, which marks the front of a parking space, lines up with the thick white stripe that separates the crosswalk from the road, as first reported by the site My Fox New York. The meter’s placement leads some quarter-dispensing drivers to risk a ticket by leaving their rides in the middle of the walkway — right in front of a crossing signal.
When we visited the intersection on June 14, a navy Nissan was blocking the walkway. Stopping, standing or parking at the crosswalk can carry a $115 fine, though the ticket-tracking Department of Finance did not return a request for comment about if any vehicles got slapped with questionable violations.
“The cars make the sidewalk inaccessible,” Henry said. “The city really didn’t plan this out properly.”
The Department of Transportation has admitted the goof and plans to remove the meter, according to spokesman Monty Dean, who declined to comment further.
This isn’t the first time that the city has removed a head-scratching parking measure. In September, officials got rid of a bogus sign in Sheepshead Bay that read “No Parking Other Times.” The city maintains that the sign was a hoax and did not belong to the city. And three years ago, Cobble Hill residents cried foul over a “No Parking Anytime” sign in front of a shuttered Dean Street fire investigation facility.
