I have a hearing in Downtown LA on Monday morning to dispute my stupid parking ticket. They want $300 for my parking in a “bus zone,” which is ridiculous because there was nothing there that told me it was a bus zone. There was no bus bench, the curb wasn’t painted red, no bus schedule was posted, the only sign regarding parking said no parking between specific hours on weekdays excluding Sundays (and I was parked there on Sunday, specifically excluded from the no-parking hours), and there was some obscure sign with an acronym I’d never heard of with no description or even a graphic depiciting what it was in reference to. Apparently the acronym is the magic indicator that a specific bus stops there. That’s just ridiculous. If they want to keep people from parking there, they need to make it clear that you CAN’T park there. This would be the equivalent to if I were to drive through another state, see a sign with a squiggle on it, shrug and keep going, and then some cop pulls out and gives me a ticket for going over 15 mph in a duck-billed platypus crossing zone. “WHAT duck-billed platypus crossing zone?” I’d ask.
He’d point to the sign with a squiggle and say, “See there? That them there sign tells y’all it’s a duck-billed platypus crossin’ zone, and ain’t nobody drivin’ more ‘an 15 miles an hour here on MY watch, endangerin’ all our duck-billed platypuses.”
I’d argue it’s a regional sign that didn’t have the speed limit or rules posted, and he’d say, “Everybody ’round these here parts know that’s a duck-billed platypus crossin’ sign, and ain’t no goin’ faster ‘an 15 ’round them duck-billed platypuses! Pay up, that’ll be $300.”
Total bullcrap.

That’s the exact analogy I’m gonna give at the hearing on Monday.