The city of New York has a problem. They issue placards which allow the people who have them to park basically anywhere in the city and not get a ticket. This article says there are over 78,000 or 20,000 or 10, 000 or who knows how many of them and when surveys are made, over half the people using them in an area either have fraudulent permits or they are misused. (In one case, 95% were misused.)
I have a solution – why not ticket every car in the city that is parked illegally, placard or not. Then have the people with legitimate permits come to an office and show their permit and the tickets would be absolved. One might assume that those being misused would simply pay their tickets and stop misusing them. My guess is parking enforcement would LOVE this approach.
The placard holders would complain that they don’t have time to come down and show their placards and tickets. Fine – Have certain days where someone from the citation department shows up for half a day a month in certain geographic areas so these folks could drop by and show their placard and citations. They could bring a laptop with a list of all placards issued, and who they were issued to. The person showing up would have to show a placard and a valid ID.
The city is going to receive a lot more citation revenue so they can afford to have a couple of people roaming around the city, voiding improperly issued “placard” tickets.
My guess is that after a couple of months, the problem if misused or fraudulent or Xeroxed placards would be reduced to a slow drip.
Problem Solved
JVH
5 Responses
Isn’t this why we associate license plates to permits? Even the basic software packages can handle this with ease. I thnk NYC can afford the portable LPR handhelds as well….just saying
HA, but then the patronage of being able to provide a placard would be much more difficult. That’s what this is all about anyway. At one time all cops, teachers, garbage men, and practically anyone working for the city or who knew someone working for the city have them. JVH
How about warnings first, then tickets if they don’t stop or re-register? How about a $500 fine for abuse, fabrication or unauthorized use? How about doing away with them completely?
Look at the language in recent parking concession leases. They have restrictions on the number of placards that can be issued and require an ongoing program to address fraudulent use. I’m continually amazed, especially around government buildings, at the numbers of disabled and “official” placards parking in metered spaces for the entire day. All this while the parking spaces which cost taxpayers millions to construct and maintain in garages sit vacant.
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