Woman ticketed for non-existent bike lane

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NEW YORK, July 5 (UPI) -- A New York business owner said she decided to pay a $115 ticket for parking in a bike lane that doesn't exist because she can't afford to close her store.

Phyllis Cannon, 72, owner of Superior Paint and Hardware, said she received the ticket two months after parking her son's 1998 Honda in front of 1820 Hone Avenue and thought the citation must be a mistake because there are no bike lanes anywhere in the neighborhood, the New York Post reported Thursday.

Cannon said she twice tried challenging the ticket online, but was denied both times. She said she decided to pay the ticket Monday -- after five months of trying to fight it -- because she can't afford to close her store for the time it would take to make a court appearance.

"It's like they have a quota they have to get and that's it," Cannon said.

City Councilman James Vacca, the chairman of the transportation committee whose district includes the stretch of Hone Avenue, said he wants Cannon's money to be refunded.

"It shows you we have overzealous traffic agents, or traffic agents who don't know what they're seeing," Vacca said.