Exclusive: Brooklyn Drivers Say They're Being Unfairly Ticketed For Parking In Bus Lanes During Allowed Hours
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Many drivers in Brooklyn are angry and say they're being unfairly ticketed.
Bus cameras are apparently taking pictures of cars in bus lanes while parking signs say they're allowed to be there.
Rose Burke says for months, the MTA has been mailing her warnings, what the agency calls "notices of liability," about her parking illegally.
She says she tried to reach them but didn't get a response, and now she's received her first $50 ticket.
"Annoyed, like, we are being targeted, we are doing something wrong when we are not," she said.
Burke says she parked her car legally on Nostrand Avenue between Avenues H and I, but the ticket says, "You failed to comply with the bus lane restrictions."
Signs, however, say she's allowed to park on the street except from 7-10 a.m. and 4-7 p.m. when the area is used as a bus lane. Cameras on MTA buses took pictures of her car, but each of the notices show she was parked there at a legal time.
"The restricted hours are not between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and that's the time when I was parked there," Burke said.
One ticket shows she was parked at 10:39 a.m. and another shows she was there at 11:52 a.m.
Burke isn't the only one getting fined.
"I got my ticket for 2:17 p.m.," said Jarrett Blaze, who works in the area. "I was more confused just because it's legal to park there at that time."
"I got three tickets from parking over here across the street," one man said.
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CBS2 crews even saw a man coming back to snap a photo of the parking sign to dispute his ticket.
Frank Cerciello owns the pizza place across the street. He too is complaining about getting tickets.
"If there is an issue, they should have made that a 24-hour bus lane, but it's not a 24-hour bus lane," he said.
DOT officials say the signs are correct and drivers are allowed to park on the street outside of the bus-lane time periods.
All of the people who spoke to CBS2 who were ticketed say they don't plan on paying these fines since they don't believe they were in the wrong. They say they will fight the city until they see that.
The MTA released a statement that reads in part, "We are working alongside our third-party vendor and NYC DOT partners to address a small software glitch leading some drivers to mistakenly receive violations that will be rescinded."
