I went into Philly to celebrate with my family the graduation of my nephew from St. Joseph's University. I was very Lucky to find a metered parking spot across the street from the Hilton where the festivities were held. According to the sign I only had to feed the meter until 8:PM. I fed it to get me safely past 8. At 9:15 I left, got in the car and noticed a ticket on my windshield. I got the ticket and it was for parking in a handicap zone . I Looked around for any tell tale sign that I missed indicating a HCZ. That's when a Cab driver told me to look approx. 2 feet above the sign that I had paid attention to. Yup, there it was, a sign like I've never seen before. It was about half the size of the one that said it was OK to park, the size of the letters on the small sign were at least 3/4 smaller than the larger one, and smack dab in the middle of that sign was the handicap logo no bigger that a pack of cigarettes . I do quite a bit of traveling for my company, and a HCZ is a HCZ, clearly marked, and no way it can be mistaken. I missed it, can't deny it, I would never park in a HCZ. But this was not easy to see. the price $300   The city of brotherly love it's not, I've never seen anything like this, and I can assure you I'll fight it just for the principle of it.       warbird38851.6584490741

City of brotherly something, it wasn't love.  That's raw.

Brotherly love? Like Ken said...brotherly something. If that's love, they didn't even give you butter before bending you over.

  samething happened on a trip to Florida, cop was having a bad day and didn't want any excuses... so the city recieved a nice thank you note

That ticket may actually be a little easy to fight. Do a web search for ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). There are set standards for H.C. parking signs. Height of the sign, size of the sign, size of the letters, etc. If the sign is not as prescribed by these standards, it's out of compliance and not a legitimate space.

It's been a while since I was an active police officer, but back in the '90s the fine for parking in a marked handicapped space here in Maryland was something like $200. Don't know what it is now.

It's a pretty hefty fine, but if you're legitimitely handicapped and can't find a parking space because someone is illegally using it, the fine isn't half enough.

What I have done before when I pulled my cruiser into a convenience store (no...not for donuts), and a car was parked in a handicapped space without permits, I would simply park him in and take my time going about my business. The driver would always be sitting there by his car steaming but not once did they ever say anything to me about it since I saved them a big fine with that bit of inconvenience. If they would have said something to me about parking them in, all I would have said was "You mean your car that's parked illegally in a handicapped space?" Never got the chance to say it...never had to but the point was made.

All that aside, as DaveB said, there are standards signage has to meet. I don't know PA law, but in Maryland a handicapped space has to marked clearly on the pavement and have a posted sign. The signs can be at the ends of a row with arrows pointing the direction the h/c spaces extend, but they also still have to have the markings on the pavement. If they don't meet the standards (take photos and date them) and take it to court on that basis. If nothing else, maybe the officer won't show in court (not uncommon for parking violations) and the case will be dropped.

Best of luck.

having a daughter with disabilities i know for a fact that there are very strict defined laws about the placemwnt of a sign, space, etc. hell the sign needs to be visable to people with disabilities, fight fight fight, take a picture of the sign with a tape measure to show distance from ground to center of sign, wide and height, size of letters and then take a copy of the dov regulations, and the ADA rules, maybe even the states RCW or WAC laws that what they are called in washington state.

I know that a person in a wheel chair would not be able to see a sign placed that high in the air, at least with out pulling a muscle.

You might look into the Arc of Philly, or an advocacy group like ADAPT, or people first, they can get you great directions to find the info you need.  if you need me to help find these groups just PM me.

Larry

Thanks guys, I will be doing a lot of research. Like I said I would never, under any circumstance, park in a HCZ. And Gunslinger is correct, $300 is a decent fine to issue to those that are too lazy and inconsiderate to park a little bit out of their way.

From your description, it sounds like a "racket."  I bet you find out the sign should be larger.  I've seen cars towed that were parked in a "no parking or will be towed" area and the "no parking or will be towed" sign was on an opposite (not seen) side of the building.  If you hadn't driven on that side of the building, you wouldn't of known it was posted there & your SOL.