When we are home, we park on the street.  We have no off-street parking available to us.  We have metered parking and unmetered free parking on our street (which is a one-way street with two moving lanes and parking along both sides).  We get on average, one parking ticket a month, which we take in stride. 

 

Today:

My wife was putting the kids in the car, had both doors open, several cars passed her as she buckled their seatbelts etc..  Well one car came too close and got their mirror caught on our door and broke it (the mirror) off.  Our car suffered no damage.  After an hour of waiting for a Cincinnati cop to show up, the officer told my wife that she was the guilty party, and that we must pay for the damage!

 

Does that sound right?  How are you supposed to get in and out of your car if you can only open the door when no cars are passing?  We could never load the kids in the car if this is the way the law is written.

Fight it. I question how loading and unloading passengers in a portion of the public right of way designated for parking can be illegal. Exiting a vehicle is sanctioned behavior; reckless driving is not. In any other instance it would be incumbent upon the operator of a moving motor vehicle to be attentive to his surroundings and the safety of others. How can it be any different in this situation?

 

My client is innocent, your honor. I rest my case.

 

So, Over-the-Rhine? Is Kaldi's still there? Favorite cafe EVER.

 

KF

Did the cop issue you a citation? Did the cop say you are responsible for paying damage to the other car, or just your own?

 

Yep, Kaldi's is still here.

 

if you were given a citation, post the ORC or City Code section that was cited.

The cop said it was my wife's fault for "obstructing traffic" but that she would give her a break and not write a citation (thank you).  She said that the our insurance company will have to pay to repair the other driver's mirror.  I guess we will see what the insurance company says. 

 

It just seems that you should be able to have you car door open while loading and un-loading, and not have to keep shutting it as each car passes (which would be impossible when loading 2 kids in the car anyway).  My wife was standing in the door, buckling seatbelts as this occurred, and she screamed with suprise when the other driver hit the door.  Like I said, 3-4 other cars passed safely before this knucklehead hit her. 

 

And another thing I have noticed after parking on the street for over a decade is this:

We never ever get parking tickets when it is raining or snowing.  Every time we get a parking ticket on our street it is beautiful weather.  I think part of the reason is that OTR (at least the west side) is not patrolled by meter maids, but we only get tickets from cops who happen to be passing.  They switch to other police work in inclement weather.

Well, if there's no citation then all you're left with is the opinion of an ignorant cop and some lousy driver who thinks you owe him something. Thanks officer!

 

In a way it would be better had he given your wife a citation. I've been to traffic court enough times (I've never lost) to know that there isn't a judge in the land who would side against a mother protecting her children.

 

Let's just hope this other driver is cool. In a way, I think he will be; his insurance company will be notified if he is involved in another company's claim. His rates will get dinged along with yours.

 

By the way, in Hamtramck, the Detroit innerburb from which we moved to Ohio, we loaded and unloaded kids on an incredibly busy street, and while we were never involved in a clipping like yours, we'd been hit-and-run sideswiped many times over the years (including a $600 sideview mirror on a Volvo). We never even dreamed of filing a claim: our monthly premium was $250. That's two older cars, drivers over 30, no points on our driving record. Our only offense? Living in an urban center. Now in Columbus we pay $386.

 

Per six month term.

 

This is yet another issue I can go on an on about. But quite frankly, I'm just happy to hear that Kaldi's is still there.

 

Love that place.

 

KF

Operative phrase: "Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Regulations."

 

It's always a challenge arguing with precedent, but my gut reaction is that this is yet another example of car-centric ordinance geared against the pedestrians.

 

My gut also tells me that Jimmy could take this in front of a judge and win. But I'm an optimist like that.

 

Short of that, I'd appeal to this crasher's sense of decency/pocketbook.

 

Failing that, I'd find out where this guy parks his car, drive there, and wait...

 

KF

 

 

 

  Legally, Dan B. is right. It is the fault of the person opening the car door. My dad had a similar case some years ago and it was determined that is was the fault of the person opening the door.

 

    You are probably fortunate that the mirror gave way and the accident was not worse.

 

    Whether this is the best way to allocate public space is a different question. In our auto-centric world, pedestrian-automobile conflicts typically favor the automobile.

 

    As an aside, I find it notable that old cars typically had bench seats and it was much easier to slide across the seat to get to the curb side. I often do this in my truck, which has a bench seat in the front. It's much harder to do this with cockpit seats, especially with the parking brake, shifter, etc. in the way. Some cars of the 1910 era only had doors on one side! Finally, baby seats are relatively new also. The law is much older than that.   

 

    Hitting an open door while riding a bicycle at speed would be catastrophic.

 

    I think perpendicular or angled parking, such as on Short Vine or Court Street, would make a great solution but unfortunately many streets are not wide enough, often by just a few feet. If we could all drive smaller cars...(sigh) :|

Part of the problem is the baby seats.  Your supposed to have kids in baby-seats until they are 4 years and 40lbs, then in a booster seat until age 8, which is stupid.  We put the little baby seat on the driver's side, because on our one-way street, we usually park on the left, where we live.  But if you park on the right side of the road (on street-cleaning nights) you must load the infant in traffic, there is no way around it.

 

Regarding parallel vs diagonal parking:  I noticed in europe that the Smart cars can park straight in facing the curb in a standard parallel parking spot ... pretty nifty feature!  Of course there is no back seat for children in that car...plus they don't sell them in the US yet. 

 

Getting around with kids can complicate things.  Walking is fine, but riding bikes is dangerous at their age unless you are on a bike trail.  Busriding when paying for 4 doesn't make sense when just going a mile or so.  We paid $8 just to go the museum center and back, and the #1 only runs once an hour.

^---- Had a friend who had a particularly small little girl. He made her use the baby seat until she reached 40 lbs, while all of her friends grew out of it. She hated it!  :x

 

   

In my experience road engineers hate angled parking no matter how wide the street; it's seen as impediment to traffic flow.

 

I agree there needs to be an update on codes governing loading and unloading passengers in the carseat age. My attitude will always be that the pedestrian rules, even though it's clear that many drivers disagree; I've had cars roar through the crosswalk inches from my kids' stroller. That induces a whole other level of road rage in me. Thankfully, biker's needs--and the lanes to accomodate them--are becoming slightly more common.

 

And yes, Jimmy's wife and kids (and Jimmy) are incredibly lucky the accident wasn't worse. I can't imagine how traumatizing it would have been for the kids had it been different. I find it interesting that other drivers were able to avoid the cardoor, yet this guy wasn't. I bet he was talking on his cellphone at the time...

 

Okay, I'm letting it go now.

 

Parking hassles aside, I'm heartened that Jimmy is raising his kids in an urban environment. There are a lot of headaches about city living--most being the result of bad urban planning and incompatible development--that make it all-to-easy for young families to feel the need to flee to suburbia. But I will always contend that cities are more kid-friendly than suburbs. Suburbs foster isolation, disconnection and lousy health and social habits tied to car culture. Cities teach kids the value of diversity, interconnectedness and social openness, not to mention offer an unending parade of cool-ass construction equipment, trucks, trains and emergency vehicles.

 

Whee!

 

KF

We never even dreamed of filing a claim: our monthly premium was $250. That's two older cars, drivers over 30, no points on our driving record. Our only offense? Living in an urban center. Now in Columbus we pay $386 [per six-month period].

 

The insurance redlining in Detroit (and apparently Hamtramck) is unreal.  The insurance companies claim its because the theft rate is high, but even policies that don't cover theft are 3-5x what they are in the suburbs.

    "In my experience road engineers hate angled parking no matter how wide the street; it's seen as impediment to traffic flow."

 

    Some of my favorite neighborhoods have lousy automobile traffic flow.

 

 

 

another example of a pedestrian ( in this case your wife was one) coming last. ...so irritating. I say worth fighting. If the door was open prior to car coming near it, there is no excuse. If someone swings a door open in the path of an on coming traffic w/o looking that may be a different story.

"In my experience road engineers hate angled parking no matter how wide the street; it's seen as impediment to traffic flow."

 

I'm certain that road engineers would be perfectly happy if not for all these got-dam pedestrians.

 

Some of my favorite neighborhoods have lousy automobile traffic flow.

 

Yeah, you and Jane Jacobs.

 

I was part of a planning committee that implemented a major overhaul of a central business district, making it more ped-friendly. Part of that involved widening the sidewalks at intersections to shorten the cross walks. A couple of old-timer polticos pointed out that this would make cars go SLOWER. I confirmed their conclusion, stating that that was the idea. They laughed in my face.

 

Come to think of it, it is sort of funny. In a not-funny-at-all, kind of way.

 

But I guess they'll have the last laugh when they're not mowed down in the crosswalk by some speeding whippersnapper.

 

KF

 

The insurance redlining in Detroit (and apparently Hamtramck) is unreal.  The insurance companies claim its because the theft rate is high, but even policies that don't cover theft are 3-5x what they are in the suburbs.

 

The effect of insurance redlining in Michigan is nothing short of vicious. The victims are disproportionately urban, and inside of that, poor and/or immigrants and/or minorities. Consider that there is no workable mass-transit system in the state, and since most regions are ravaged by unmitigated sprawl, it is simply impossible to live and work without a car. For a lower income individual faced with a $250-plus (and there are plenty of stories where it's more like $500) monthly insurance premium, the answer is simple: drive without insurance (I got creamed a block from my house by an uninsured driver. I was layed up for weeks and had to take my own insurance company to court to get my pain and suffering comp).

 

But assuming you drive uninsured without incident, you still can't get your tags renewed. You drive with expired tags, get pulled over and get fined hundreds of dollars and are ordered to get insurance or have your license suspended. Without a license, you can't get to work, so you drive on a suspended license. You get caught, you get fined hundreds of dollars and lose your license. Now you really got to keep your job to pay all your fines, so you drive without a license and get fined hundreds more dollars and go to jail and end up losing your job, as well as a few other things. And on and on and on.

 

It's enough to persuade me that Michigan's insurance rates are a poison pill aimed at the urban centers. The state legislature is run by outstate Republicans; the urban centers are Democrat strongholds that elected the Democrat Governor. But then, I'm an angry, angry man.

 

Sorry.

 

I said I could go on and on about this.

 

KF

Another chapter in our on-street parking drama:

I was awoken Sunday night, 3 weeks ago, at about 3:30am by a crash.  I jump out of bed and see a white work van screeching away.  I go down to the street and see my car totalled!  Sadly a cop pulled-up about 2 minutes after it happened but couldn't find the white van.  I need to set up a security camera.

 

It might be time to give up the car and start hoofing it!