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Goodbye, "Gotcha" Tickets! New bill would give drivers 5-minute grace periods

Updated 4:18 PM EDT, Mon, Jan 26, 2009

Related Topics: Simcha Felder

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Drivers may have an extra five minutes to put cash in that meter.
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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."

Comments (4)

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  • Nick Monday, Jan 12 at 7:05 AM FLAG COMMENT If you are going to post on this board about a subject and whine about something at least have the decency to think before you type, Jacob, if you park at a munimeter and get the Muni ticket it clearly states on their what time the ticket expires, thus seeing past the 5 minute grace allowed, no need for new muni meters, unless we need to cater to idiots likeyourself
  • stew Sunday, Jan 11 at 11:29 PM FLAG COMMENT I have read about this scheme 'congestion tax'...tell me the mayor isnt a money grubber, the guy is so wealthy and sees every one else as a target of economic opportunity, his notion of gvt for profit is a disturbing state of affairs. I think there is a very good arguement for a balanced budegt amendment to insure there are no abuses like this ever. But gvt folks despise that notion and fight it to the death. california has p ... MORE >
  • jacob Sunday, Jan 11 at 1:09 PM FLAG COMMENT i don't get it. how are the traffic cops going to know how long OVER the time the parked car is? are they going to install new meters that let you know how far over you are? won't that cost more money to install new ones?
  • BUGSIEGEL Sunday, Jan 11 at 12:42 PM FLAG COMMENT THE MAYOR HAS A STRONG TASTE FOR MONEY I UNDERSTAND THE NEED FOR MONEY FOR THE CITY. BUT WORKING AT THE STREET LEVEL WITH A VEHICLE I SEE HIS AGRESSIVE APPROACH. WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF HE STARTING IMPLICATING LEFT AND RIGHT TACTICTS FOR THE POWERFULL BUSINESSES OF THE CITY

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