Pilot Parking Sign Program to Be Unveiled Friday in LA

Confusing parking signs have had Angelenos up in arms for years.

Those days are finally, hopefully, coming to an end with the Los Angeles City Council’s approval of a pilot program Wednesday to revamp the often complicated multi-sign posts that litter the city.

What will the new signs look like when they’re unveiled Friday? Imagine a green and red grid that has the hours of the day color coded. Green for yes and red for no.

"I think we'll be the first city to actually adopt this," said Councilman Paul Krekorian. Krekorian proposed the changing signage after stumbling upon a website created by a New York designer with similar parking woes. 

"It's just a matter of simple fairness that if we expect people to comply with the law, we ought to make the law easily accessible for them," he added. 

Hopefully the new system will save an unsuspecting parking violator $68, the average cost of a parking ticket in LA.

Perplexion with parking signs can often result in hefty fines. 

Residents’ woes of LA’s befuddling parking signs often make it to social media. Twitter user Merib writes: “‘I have no idea if I will get a ticket’-response to almost all parking signs in LA.”

Julia Farino posted on Twitter: “Why can’t the parking signs in LA be consistent? Last night I misunderstood a parking sign I’d never seen before & got another ticket.”

"They'll throw up a no parking sign in the middle of the night that you didn't know about," driver Harold Saxton said. 

"It gets really frustrating," he added. 

Where the new signs go up, Mayor Eric Garcetti told NBC4 he wants less tickets. 

"That's not something you usually hear out of a mayor and people are convinced we want tickets for our revenue. That is not what tickets are for. We should get people in and out of shops. We should allow people to find a good place to park," Garcetti said. 

To implement the program the council approved the Los Angeles Department of Transportation to spend up to $20,000 of the Special Parking Revenue Fund for the installation of the new signs in downtown LA. It also authorized LADOT to make any technical corrections and clarifications for the the program to work.