DETROIT – If you get a parking ticket in Detroit, you won't need appear in court to contest it.
The city announced on Monday a new process of contesting tickets through its new website, which would eliminate the need for ticketed motorists to appear in court.
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Detroit's new parking system, ParkDetroit, is currently being implemented through the downtown area. During this time, the parking department pulled back on writing tickets. Today, they are resuming their normal ticket writing operation.
"We understood that some motorist would need time to get comfortable using the new kiosks; therefore, we wanted to relax parking enforcement to give everyone a chance to get familiar with the new system," said Norm White, director of the Detroit Municipal Parking Department.
The new ParkDetroit kiosks require motorist to enter their license plate numbers and the zone in which they are parked, instead of simply entering a space number as they did in the past. This allows motorists to move to multiple spaces within their particular zone, as long as they still have time remaining on their original parking session.
But the department has also become more efficient in hearing cases from those who want to contest a ticket that they've received. By going to www.ParkDetroit.us, motorists contesting tickets can now go to the "Pay or Contest Ticket" feature to fight tickets they believe are undeserved. They will also be able to upload pictures to the site to help make their case.
"We understand that time is one of the most valuable commodities of today's working class," White said. "So we wanted to create a process that didn't force motorists to take time off of work to physically appear at our department and wait for their cases to be heard.
"Our goal is to make parking more convenient for our customers, and that includes the unfortunate circumstance of having to contest a ticket."
The department stresses that the most effective way to avoid ticket is by downloading the ParkDetroit mobile app now available for free on Google Play and The App store. The app allows motorists to pay for their parking session before even exiting their vehicle; sends text alerts 10 minutes before a parking session has expired; and allows motorists to extend their parking sessions right from their smartphone, where ever they are.