There aren't any "no parking" signs in front of Salt Lake City's 7,500 curbside residential mailboxes.

Still, drivers will soon find those hated pink tickets on their windshields if they park in front of someone's mailbox.

The City Council, at the request of Mayor Rocky Anderson's administration, approved the new no-parking rules this month after residents complained they weren't getting their mail because parked cars were blocking their mailboxes.

At least one city councilwoman thinks the move to fine people $17 for parking in front of a mailbox goes a bit far.

"Who pays attention if there's a mailbox there?" Councilwoman Nancy Saxton said. "I would never even look to see if there's a mailbox there unless my door hits it on the way out."

Saxton's complaints, however, were not enough to convince her fellow council members, who somewhat reluctantly approved the mailbox no-parking rules.

The U.S. Postal Service, apparently, won't deliver mail if there is a car parked in front of a curbside mailbox, Anderson's Chief of Staff Sam Guevara said.

"It happens all the time in our neighborhoods in the Avenues," City Councilman Eric Jergensen said.

Therefore, the city needed some way to discourage people from parking in front of the mailboxes, Guevara said.

"The purpose of this is to allow delivery at the mailboxes, which seems like a legitimate concern," Council Chairman Dale Lambert said. "I'm sympathetic if people aren't really getting their mail because of this."

But even those council members who supported the plan weren't overly excited about it, though Saxton was the lone council member to vote against it.

She said the new law was stupid and would make people even more frustrated with parking in Salt Lake City.

"We're trying to make it more of a user-friendly kind of community. This doesn't make it user-friendly at all," she said.

Saxton noted there are all kinds of existing parking laws in the city that aren't currently enforced. For instance, people are forbidden from parking within five feet of someone's driveway. Also, you can't park within 10 feet of a fire hydrant. But most people don't know because the city gave up painting curbs red several years ago to cut costs.

"It's very expensive" to paint and repaint the curbs, Transportation Department director Tim Harpst said.

Even police officers whom Saxton calls to enforce the parking rules don't know what the laws are.

"If the police officers that enforce this don't know those rules, how can we expect the public to keep track of this law. I mean, I think that's unrealistic," she said.