How to Fight Parking Tickets in the City of Boston

Parking in Boston is practically a competitive sport, and finding a spot—any spot—can feel like a major victory. But that victory is short-lived when you return to find an orange envelope tucked under your wiper blade. If your ticket says "Wrong Direction," you might be scratching your head. You weren't driving; you were parked. How can you be in the wrong direction?

Here is the breakdown: Massachusetts law and Boston city ordinances require vehicles to be parked facing the same direction as the flow of traffic. On a standard two-way street, this means your car's passenger side should be against the curb. If you saw a spot across the street and quickly cut over to grab it, leaving your driver's side against the curb, you have committed a Wrong Direction violation. The city enforces this because pulling out of that spot against oncoming traffic is considered dangerous.

The base fine for this violation is $15.00. While this is one of the more affordable tickets in the city, it is still a nuisance. More importantly, if you forget about it or delay handling it, the city adds a $5.00 late penalty if the fine remains unpaid after 21 days. Those small fees can add up quickly if you have multiple outstanding tickets, eventually leading to the dreaded parking boot.

Can you dispute it? Yes, and there are a few angles that sometimes work. The most common defense involves one-way streets. If you were parked on the left side of the road (driver's side to the curb) but the street is a designated one-way street, you are legally allowed to park there. Sometimes ticketing officers operate on autopilot and mistake a one-way side street for a two-way road. Another angle is a factual error on the ticket itself, such as the wrong location or license plate number.

If you want to handle this without the headache of navigating the city's municipal websites, the Busted web app is here to help. You don't need to download anything; just open our website in your browser. You can upload a photo of your ticket and answer a few simple questions about the situation. If you have grounds for a dispute, we can help you generate the necessary appeal documents to send to the City of Boston. If you would rather just get it over with, we can facilitate the payment for you securely online. Our goal is to make the process as painless as possible so you can get back to driving.