Bay Ridge — Attention drivers! Be sure to check the signs when parking your car on Fort Hamilton Parkway and 65th Street. Parking meter regulations are in effect until 10 p.m., not 7 p.m., as they had been up until now.
 

The Department of Transportation (DOT) suddenly, and without warning, extended the parking restriction by three hours, according to Josephine Beckmann, district manager of Community Board 10.
 

“I wanted to alert everyone to a change in signage in our community and that is the extension of meter parking at 65th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway. Metered parking is now in effect until 10 p.m. and we have had a few calls from residents who were not aware of the change and received summonses,” Beckmann told the board at its Jan. 23 meeting.
 

DOT did not contact board officials prior to erecting the new signs, Beckmann said. “I was not aware of the change,” she said.
 

In most areas of the city, parking meters are in effect until 7 p.m.
 

But the news about parking isn’t all negative.
 

At the same board meeting, Councilman Vincent Gentile announced the passage of legislation in the Council to make life easier for drivers, even those who park on the wrong side of the street on alternate side days.
 

One bill would ban the use of those large, impossible-to-remove stickers enforcement agents like to affix to car windows of drivers violating alternate side regulations. The stickers usually chastise drivers for having their car in the way when the Department of Sanitation tried to sweep the street. “Have you ever tried to get those stickers off your car? It’s very difficult,” Gentile said.
 

Another bill would prevent the city from charging late fees to motorists fighting parking ticket. “The bill would stop late fees from accruing if the driver is fighting the ticket,” Gentile said.
 

The council also approved a bill to require traffic enforcement agents to rip up a parking ticket if the driver can prove that he or she had more time left on the muni-meter. The driver could show the agent the muni-meter receipt as proof, Gentile said.
 

But the motorist had better hurry. The driver would have only five minutes after the summons is issued to prove the case.
 

— Paula Katinas