There is a great sign at the north end of Georgetown, where the one block long street just north of R comes out of Wisconsin Avenue and goes by the Boys and Girls Club. It is illegal to turn off of Wisconsin onto this street, but only between 7 and 9 am. The sign (on Wisconsin) is invisible, especially if a truck is parked in front of it. I used to turn there often, but never at that time of day. Finally one day I had to rouse myself from my bed with the flu and deliver a document to work early one morning. I turned, and found myself waived over by a police woman. Two police cars had pulled over half a dozen cars who made the same mistake. A revenue generating ticket trap? Do they still do this every day?

Worse yet I paid this ticket late, as I had held it back, thinking of appealing it. Paying it late resulted in a suspended driver's license, unless one also paid a $98 re-instatement fee. (A notice telling me that was supposedly mailed to me, but was returned to the DMV -- when I finally went to Anacostia to the main DMV to figure all of this out (no one could figure it out over the phone or in Georgetown) -- so I had to produce utility bills proving I really lived in DC. I just happened to have them on me in my grab bag computer case.)

There are also confusing signs in Adams Morgan. I got a ticket (outside of Meze) for not backing in to a space, although there were no signs telling me to back in to the space. (I think there used to be, but they might have been taken down since all the construction was done, or since the new parking machines were added.) I'm planning on appealing the $30 ticket at the traffic court. I received another ticket at the same place last year - it was late in the evening (around 9 p.m.), and the signs led me to think that I didn't need to pay. So frustrating.