City Hall – Council Member Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn) announced a bill that would create a five-minute “grace period” for certain parking violations including no parking zones (such as alternate side) and expired Muni-Meters. Felder was joined by Council Members David Weprin (D-Queens), Vincent Gentile (D-Brooklyn) and others on the steps of City Hall on Sunday morning to discuss the legislation with members of the media. Felder and his colleagues symbolically tore apart mock parking tickets in protest.
“Enough is enough,” said Felder. “Tickets should be issued to encourage compliance, not to generate revenue for the City! ‘Gotcha’ tickets fly in the face of that philosophy.”
Last year, ten percent of the tickets for alternate-side violations were issued within two minutes of the rule taking effect. Of those, nearly 28,000 tickets, or 2 percent of the total number, were issued exactly on the hour that the rule went into effect.
“This bill offers a welcome dose of sanity to a traffic enforcement system that too often focuses on doling out the most tickets, rather than punishing the most egregious offenders,” says Vacca. “When drivers overrun a Muni-Meter by a few minutes, or leave their car in a street-sweeping zone for a moment too long, they deserve a little discretion before facing fines that now run well over $100.”
A five-minute grace period was previously in place as part of the City’s traffic enforcement policy but has since been replaced with a mere suggestion to agents that they use common sense when doling out violations. Though many drivers believe the grace period still exists, more than 276,000 were ticketed for alternate side violations within five minutes of the rule taking effect last fiscal year.
“Parking tickets should not be used solely to generate revenue, with enforcement agents poised to pounce the moment the clock strikes,” added Fidler. “In real life, a five-minute grace period is more than reasonable.”
“This legislation will give drivers peace of mind knowing they have an extra five minutes before they are ticketed. In these tough economic times we should be working with people- not against them,” stated Weprin.
“There’s a citywide ticketing blitz underway, with New Yorkers being treated as revenue sources instead of residents, targets instead of partners,” Gentile said. “Int. 907 will help protect drivers from the onslaught of aggressive ticketing.”
(YWN Desk – NYC)
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13 Responses
Keep up the great work, Felder!! The people need you!
if i have a ticket from jan 7 2009 at 9:34am and street cleaning started at 9:30am will this help me out or am i outa luck? wen does this law start to take affect?
what?
if i got a ticket on jan 7 2009 at 9:34am b’c of alternate parking at 9:30 will this help me at all or am i outa luk? wen does this come into effect?
can we get a grace period on the grace period? We in Klal Yisroel understsnd a Zman is a Zman. There is no grace period for Zman Krias Shma, Shkiya, Netz etc. Discipline is a fundamental. Lakol Zman Voays……
By discipline I do not mean that we should be punished. I mean we should be (not to use the term lightly) Yekish
I am surprised Felder decided it was more imortant to be doing this rather than being at the rally for Israel.
5 Minutes is too little. At least 10 minutes grace period should be given.
The emes is that in most cases alternate sides parking is absolutely of no avail for anything else other than to give some losers a lowly job (to give tickets). It seems to me that the street cleaning and sanitation pickup does not coincide with the times of the alternate sides parking anyway. In some upper-class neighborhoods in the city they have done away with ASP altogether.
“26 Estates”: What you’re saying is absolute shtuss; it makes no sense whatsoever.
My usual take on giving out a lot of tickets and “people being used as revenue” is that if you don’t break the law you don’t get a ticket! In this case however, since it’s just a matter of being a little late, perhaps a grace period should be in effect, since the person isn’t breaking the law l’hachas.
It’s very disgusting how Simcha Felder is trying to pass all of these popular laws so he can make his constituency forget that he was a co-sponser of the bill which extended the term limits law to allow the mayor, all of the city council including himself & every other New York City office holder to stay in office for four more years without allowing the voters to vote on this after NYC voters not once but twice voted for the term limits law. Simcha Felder & the mayor are trying to take away our right to vote with the excuse of tough economic times we can’t afford change. Whats coming next Felder & the Mayor are going to sponsor another bill saying we can’t have elections this year because of tough enconomic times. Simcha Felder & any other polictician who voted to extend term limits should not get any compliments on anything they pass even if it’s the best law in the world, because complimenting these politicians on any law they pass is telling them that we don’t care about them taking away our right to vote & we support you anyways.
ELI500 and honestly frum DITTO for me, I have called Felder’s office numerous times and NEVER get a call back and I am a constituent, Hikind on the other hand called me back immediately. I will NOT vote for him since he is a pupper of Bloomberg and did not attend the Israel rally rather met with the ARAB lover Gentile
I disagree partially with Eli500. Simcha should be commended for this great peice of legislation. These types of laws which make sense and help the public with making life easier is greatle appreciated. HOWEVER this should not take away the fact that the city council and mayor should be terminated for going against the will of the people.
Doesn’t he have anything better to do? Don’t most people know when they put money in the meter that it’s a TIMED meter? So he wants meter maids to stand around staring at the expired meter and look at their watch and wait for the person? Where are his priorities?