Friday, June 4, 2010

Reprieve from double parking tickets?

From the NY Post:

Drivers desperate for parking spots would get a reprieve under a City Council proposal to legalize double parking in certain situations, The Post has learned.

Three members this week are introducing a bill that would permit double parking for drivers waiting for a soon-to-be-vacated space or dropping off or picking up passengers.

The sponsors of the legislation say their push aims to curb a double-parking ticketing blitz that is infuriating their constituents.

The city has given an increasing number of double-parking tickets each year under Mayor Bloomberg -- from 806,112 in fiscal year 2002 to more than 1.3 million in the last fiscal year.

Gentile, who represents Bay Ridge -- an area where parking spots are notoriously hard to come by -- lamented that some of his constituents have been slapped with the $115 double-parking fine for simply stopping by a doctor's office to drop off a spouse before circling the block for a legal spot.

"They're going around and playing gotcha with people," he said of ticketing agents, who work for the NYPD.

From the NY Post:

Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday he sympathizes with New Yorkers weary from double-parking tickets, but balked at the notion that ticketing agents only dole out the fines to collect revenue.

"We don't have a 'gotcha!' " mentality. We try to enforce the law and we get some revenues," he said.

Still, he said, he is "very sympathetic" to those who get the $115 violations.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"We don't have a 'gotcha!' " mentality. We try to enforce the law and we get some revenues," he said.

BULLSHIT.. it's not "we get some revenues".. it's like "we want revenues and this is as easy as it gets"

Anonymous said...

This is one parking violation that should NOT be giuven any grace period. I don't care how much money double parking tickets make for the city, and I don't give a damn about any bullshit "gotcha" mentality. Ticket and tow ALL double parkers.
OK, now let's hear all the excuses and the sob stories about granny waiting for a parking spot so she could go to her dialysis treatment, and the big bad traffic agent mercilessly writing her a ticket, "for no reason"........

Queens Crapper said...

How are you supposed to park if you can't pull over to allow the car that's in the spot to pull out?

Anonymous said...

HAHAHA, not about revenues. Right. Then why attach monetary fines at all???

There are other ways to punish improper actions other than financial penalty, but that will never happen because its an income source.

For example, instead of running a stop sign is $150 and 2 points, make it 4 points and one week suspended license.

Anonymous said...

How are you supposed to park if you can't pull over to allow the car that's in the spot to pull out?
----------------------------------
Obviously a logical exception. The traffic agent shoud at least observe the car in question to determine if this is indeed the situation.There should be obvious telltale signs; a driver in the double parked car with its motor running and its turn signal activated, to indicate the drivers intention to park. And obviously, there should be a car in the process of pulling out of a spot. If at least this much isn't observed, then the double parked car should be summonsed.

Queens Crapper said...

And that's what this bill is for.

Anonymous said...

"We don't have a 'gotcha!' " mentality. We try to enforce the law and we get some revenues," he said.

Mike, let's see the legislative language on that...