Parking tickets threaten food delivery

Unlike many of you, I was not able to watch us trounce Florida State on Wednesday. I missed the game because I was working that night, delivering subs for Lil' Dinos. Thanks to Public Safety, however, such time conflicts may soon become a thing of the past. The night of the game, when literally hundreds of cars were parked in every random space imaginable, I left my car in a fire lane, next to two other vehicles, for fifteen minutes to deliver three subs. I returned to find $75 worth of violations on my windshield and my car being hoisted onto a tow truck.

Although the officer who ticketed my car knew that I was making a delivery, he refused to void the ticket. He defended this decision with two statements that should trouble everyone on campus. First he informed me that delivery vehicles are never allowed in illegal spots but they usually get away with it because "we can't enforce it." Then, not knowing that I was a student, he asked, "Why do you care anyway? You are not affiliated with the University, we can't make you pay this."

This first statement would appear to indicate that if Public Safety gets its way, delivery people, who are often students, will be unable to continue to do their jobs, and the future of on-campus food delivery will be jeopardized. No delivery driver can risk paying $75 each time he makes a delivery or afford to pay $50 for a special "service vehicle" permit.

The officer's second statement indicates that he knowingly wasted time and money by writing a ticket which he believed (and later suggested) would be ignored. What is worse is that in the time it took him to write a useless ticket and call a tow truck a violent crime could have been committed. Our safety was not jeopardized by my vehicle being in the fire lane--the hundreds of cars double parked along Wannamaker and Towerview would have blocked a fire engine long before it reached my car. Our safety was jeopardized by having one less officer in a conspicuous place, deterring crime.

I will appeal this ticket and I will probably lose. In addition, I would like to make an appeal to the Duke community--don't let Public Safety jeopardize the future of students' jobs, campus food delivery, or your safety.

James Mackler

Trinity `94