Barbara Hammond had no idea she would spend the next 10 years fighting parking tickets when a neighbourhood petition circulated to curb student parking on Duthie Avenue.
But that is what happened after the city put up two-hour parking limit signs on her street about a decade ago.
Hammond lives with her two daughters and son-in-law at 512 Duthie Ave., and the household has five cars, so Hammond parks hers on the street in front of her home.
She has received reams of parking tickets over the years, the 76-year-old said, and other family members have gotten them, too.
The situation has been frustrating, Hammond added, but her worst experience thus far happened on April 11 when a parking enforcement officer accused her of lying.
Hammond went shopping just before 11 a.m. and returned home at about 1 p.m., she said. Just after she entered her home, her daughter noticed she was getting a ticket.
When she went outside to ask why, Hammond was told she'd been caught moving her car to avoid the time limit.
"I said, 'No I haven't, I've been out shopping,'" Hammond said, "and she accused me of lying."
She offered her shopping receipts as proof - one for a greeting card from Brentwood Town Centre at 11: 16 a.m., and one from Safeway at about 11: 30 a.m., but the officer got angry and told Hammond not to interrupt her, she said.
Hammond was given a warning and told she couldn't park there, as she'd already been there two hours.
"I said, 'I live here, and I have to carry my groceries in,'" Hammond said, adding it is difficult for her to walk from farther up the block.
She would like to the City of Burnaby to give her a residential parking permit or sticker, so she can park in front of her home.
But Lambert Chu, the City of Burnaby's engineering director, said residential parking permits are only for very specific areas in the city.
"Residential parking permits only apply to areas where we have a combination of residential development, commercial, or public institution development where parking demand is extremely high," he said, "and we also want to encourage high turnover in those areas."
Those areas include the streets around Burnaby Hospital and medical clinics, he added.
"For the 500-block of Duthie Avenue, the situation is a little bit different," Chu said.
Ten years ago, residents petitioned the city to put parking time restrictions on the street, as Simon Fraser University students would park there and then catch a bus to school, he said.
"It was precluding residents from parking on the street some of the time," Chu added.
The restrictions limit parking to two hours between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., and parking enforcement officers actively patrol the area and chalk tires to keep track of how long vehicles have been there, he said.
Throughout most of Burnaby, people can park in front of residences (other than their own, which has no time limit) for up to three hours during the day, but officers usually only issue tickets if someone calls with a complaint, Chu explained.
The city plans to contact Hammond to sort out a solution for her parking woes, he added.
"I think we do have some options that we can work out with the property owners," he said.
