:: Giving cars the boot ::

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

From the "Reasons New York is an extraordinarily comfortable and convenient place to live if you're a billionaire" dept, NYC drivers are further abandoning their cars because of the prohibitive cost.

The pricey ride doesn't stop there. The city and state are fleecing automobile owners like never before--partly in an effort to encourage the use of mass transit. The city's Department of Finance collected $537 million in parking violation fines last year, a 30% increase over 2003, by issuing roughly 10 million tickets, or 20% more tickets than the previous year.

Drivers with multiple traffic violations face an additional $300 or more in penalties, thanks to the New York Driver Responsibility Assessment enacted by the state in November.

Yes, I know this all too well, but how was the average cost of tickets last year somewhere in the neighborhood of $53 (according to the figures above $537m / 10m violations) when the minimum fine is $60?

Posted by morland @ 04:00 PM

:: Comments ::

You like the plywood dais, don't you Mr. Orland?

Posted by: Grenoga on February 15, 2005 04:54 PM

They issued 10 million tickets. Only some of those were paid (you also know this all too well). Revenue was collected only on paid tickets. The return on issuing tickets thus fell below the minimum ticket amount.

Posted by: Bort on February 15, 2005 06:35 PM

yeah! take that! and to think that you were half christian until your timely blog entry about that synagogue.

Posted by: Captain Infallible on February 15, 2005 08:13 PM

Each year they're collecting revenue from back-tickets which, yes, as I know all too well, accrue significant interest over time. Throw in the extra revenue from property seizures (as I also know all too well) and I'd venture to guess that they earn back at least the minimum ticket amount on average (hefty penalties on collected back-tickets combined with those going unpaid). Though perhaps not a representative case, I paid about three times the original amount in fines, interest, and fees.

Posted by: morland on February 16, 2005 10:29 AM

I wonder what percentage of parking fines never get collected...I recall an ole New Yorker from college who not only never paid his parking tickets in the Lou but lost his license as a result. This gentleman would rather have abandoned his car in a seedy parking lot than ever pay a parking ticket, which he did. I'm sure a few of his NY brethren also share this same outlook. Ok, nevermind. No one would abandon their car as an alternative to paying parking tickets.

Posted by: lw on February 16, 2005 02:21 PM

I wonder if the city is labeling cash collected from past-due tickets and/or tickets issued in previous years as something other than parking ticket fine collections and/or retroactively assigning them to previous years' balance sheets.

Posted by: Bort on February 16, 2005 05:05 PM

I wonder if Bort ever got laid.

Posted by: Bort's Mom on February 16, 2005 06:54 PM

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