Parking on Borrowed Time:Raul Victorica felt fortunate...

Parking on Borrowed Time:

Raul Victorica felt fortunate when he drove downtown and found a spot on the street with 30 minutes of time left on the meter. “But when I came back I had a ticket,” he said. “And I still had 15 minutes more (on the meter).”

The officer wrote “ ‘No Coins Deposited,’ on the ticket,” said Santa Monica attorney Tom Brill, whose firm employs Victorica as a courier.

The company paid the ticket, but Brill wondered whether the ticket was fair.

We phoned the Transportation Department’s Robert Yates, who confirmed that Municipal Code Section 88.13A does indeed state that it’s “unlawful for any person” to park in a meter space “without immediately depositing” coins.

“You can’t use prepaid space,” Yates declared.

Fortunately, time bandits--admit it, you are one, too--must be caught in the act by a meter maid (or meter mister).

And Yates pointed out that things could be worse. The city once considered using meters that wipe out leftover time whenever the space is vacated.

Strange things can also happen to a car left at a repair shop, as we all know, but here’s a new twist, courtesy of Brad Altman of L.A.

After retrieving his auto, Altman noticed that a license plate frame advertising the shop had been slapped over his old frame. Altman says the same thing happened to a neighbor who visited another mechanic.

Pretty nervy, we agree. But we’re not going to worry until we hear reports of shops clandestinely substituting frames that say, “Have a Nice Day.”

Southern California’s had an earthquake, a July rainstorm and a solar eclipse within the last two weeks. So it somehow makes perfect sense to hear that we have a bus “road-eo” coming up in a Santa Anita Racetrack parking lot and luge-racing on a paved road in Griffith Park.

Today’s “road-eo” offers such events as the maneuvering “of buses through an obstacle course consisting of traffic cones, large barrels and a series of reverses and right and left turns.” Sounds like business as usual, to us.

With no snow expected in Griffith Park, the luges will also be on wheels. Boys and girls, ages 12 to 16 who’d like to one day to be members of the U.S. Olympic Team will compete today and Sunday after receiving instruction in the sport (including, we hope, the proper pronunciation of luge ). Participants can register for $10 at the race site on Boy Scout Road, off Vermont Avenue just south of the Greek Theater.

Wait! Don’t put a quarter in that just-abandoned parking meter yet!

A few hours after our initial talk, Yates phoned back to “clarify” his remarks. He said that ticketing a driver for using leftover meter time is “kind of a ticky-tack item,” though it might “technically” be a violation. He wanted to assure motorists that “we don’t coach our people” to ticket in that situation.

Sort of reminded us of an NFL referee having a decision overruled by the replay booth.

miscelLAny:

Frank Barron of Van Nuys says that Figueroa is the only L.A. street he can think of that contains the vowels a, e, i, o and u.