Goodbye, "Gotcha" Tickets!
New bill would give drivers 5-minute grace periods
Wednesday, Jul 22, 2009 | Updated 10:34 AM EDT
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Drivers may have an extra five minutes to put cash in that meter.
Tired of stepping out of your car to drop off mail only to find a parking ticket when you turn around 40 seconds later? Well, this new bill might cheer you up.
Council members Simcha Felder, James Vacca and colleagues are introducing a new bill that would create five minute “grace periods” for parking violations, including no parking-zones (such as alternate-side) and expired Munimeters.
Felder and Vacca held an 11 a.m. press conference Sunday at City Hall to introduce the legislation.
"Enough is enough," Felder said. "Tickets should be issued to encourage compliance, not to generate revenue for the City! 'Gotcha!' tickets fly in the face of that philosophy."
Felder and his colleagues symbolically tore parking tickets in protest at the event.
"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," Vacca said. "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."
