Ticket-happy traffic agents are slapping Big Apple drivers with “unfair” summonses, according to a lawmaker who wants to put the brakes on the orange blizzard.
“Over the last six months, complaints about traffic summonses have surpassed anything else in my office,” said City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr.
“The way traffic agents are enforcing the law is absolutely out of control.”
One complaint came from John Panagiotopoulos, 32, a Queens cafe owner hit with a $135 fine for double parking — while he was waiting for another car to pull away from a meter.
“I was not blocking traffic,” Panagiotopoulos said. “I was in the car, the car was on. All of a sudden, this agent came in front of my car and extended his arm to give me a ticket. It was very aggressive and really unfair.” Adding insult to injury, he lost the spot.”
My customers are experiencing the same thing,” said Panagiotopoulos, who paid the ticket. “They pull over for a few seconds to pick up food and they get a $120 ticket. It’s hurting business, it’s hurting the people.”
Vallone is considering legislation that would give drivers a grace period to briefly pull into no-standing areas. He called the legislation “a last resort.”
(Source: NY Post)
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9 Responses
Sorry to burst everyone’s bubble, but don’t double park, don’t park illegally, don’t not feed the meter.
And don’t complain about it when it happens. If you can’t find a place to park, go around the block. So you may have to walk a little, is that so bad.
And if NYC is enforcing the parking laws like this then it probably falls under dina d’malchusa and is then assur to double park.
To #1
This story wasn’t the only example unfortunately. I was driving the other day and on the corner of N and e10th there were 2 cops standing there pointing at cars without seatbelts to pull over and giving them tickets. They were there for a while and must’ve been making this city a lot of money.
Now while I’m all for wearing seatbelts, and I always wear one. But to stand around trying to find people to give tickets to is a chutzpah. It’s one thing if they’re strolling around or they already pull someone over and see no seat belts, but the attitude should not be one of being “out to get you”.
#2: They SHOULD be looking to ticket for without a seatbelt.
To #1
Unfortunately, life is not as black and white as you may have imagined it. If you have ever driven in NYC, you would know that there are many instances where it is IMPOSSIBLE to find a spot.
There is no harm done, when one sends a passenger out to pick up a package from a building while the driver waits in the car in a double parked spot. If the car is blocking traffic or anything else, then the driver can just pull out and come back.
It is unreasonable for a municipality to ticket people for instances in which they did not create any possible harm. This Councilman understands this, and therefore he is attempting to change the law to accommodate a reasonable suggestion such as this.
I do agree with you that under no circumstances is one permitted to break the law. However, to speak so pretentiously regarding a councilman attempting to accommodate reason into the law is silly and small minded.
#1
Sorry to burst your bubble, but believe it or not, there are places in NY that are simply too congested to find parking “around the block”.
Ordinarily I would agree with you: There are are rules to be followed, follow them. You live in a civilized society, you follow the laws of a civilized society. But what to do when there is absolutely no legal spot to be found?
I do not know where you live but let me tell you a bit about BP and Flatbush. Everyone’s back from the summer season. Ergo, no parking. Period. To drive down one street can take take all the allotted time you barely have to conduct the one errand you must do before you need to rush back home for your kids or back to work or pick up an order before closing time, etc etc etc. Unless I’m on foot, I’ve basically given up shopping in BP because I just can’t afford the time wasted trying to find a place to put my car while I tend to my shopping list!
“If you can’t find a place to park, go around the block” works very nicely for some neighborhoods but you CLEARLY don’t mean mine.
#2, you may not find it “nice” but safety comes first- they are not wrong in looking for people not wearing seatbelts.
Who cares if the police “are out to get you” a ticket? Imagine if people were not worried about tickets… stop signs would be optional, red/green lights would be a recommendation. The number of injuries from seatbelts would triple (at least). people will be triple parked, not just doubled so no traffic can drive by and no one can get their cars out. No parking zones (for firetrucks and the like) are jam-packed with cars so if there was an emergency, no rescue vehicles can come…
#6- SO WALK THE WHOLE WAY! Use a bubbycart to get groceries home. Dont be lazy and dont break the law. What is one law you might say? Well, what if the councilman would allow someone to commit one robbery, as long as it was “within the grace” amount… so you can steal as long as it was less than $50 or the like. Such a selfish attitude…”CLEARLY you dont mean mine”. Well, maybe other neighborhoods are easy to park in BECAUSE PEOPLE FOLLOW THE RULES!
You people are not understanding the problem. Its not that too many tickets are being given out, they are being given out for the wrong reasons. In the case of the person waiting for a person to pull out so he could park, that is not double parking. There is no violation, so there should have been no ticket issued. In my own case, I was ticketed for an expired muni meter. The problem was that the meter I was parked at still had time on it and was not a muni meter. The issue is how to stop these bandits from continuing to issue blatantly false tickets. When you go to fight the ticket, YOU are assumed guilty and you have to prove that you are innocent. If you win, nothing happens to the guy who wrote the phony ticket. This is the crux of the issue.
“Fairness” is not necessarily related to frequency. What I experience on the road makes it surprising everyone does not get a ticket for something each day.