Why Fine for Illegal Parking? An Alternative
BY DONALD SHOUP
tickets by $5, regardless of the violation. This across-the-board hike suggests that the higher fines aremore about raisingmoney than about enforcing the law. But a few cities have discovered how to enforce the law and raise money without costing most drivers anything. Cities can achieve these three goals by using “graduated” parking fines.
C Fines are necessary to enforce parking regulations, and
enforcement is important because violations have victims. If a driver stays over the time limit, others have a harder time finding a parking space and businesses can suffer from low turnover. Double parking can block a whole lane of traffic.
Illegal parking in a disabled space makes life even more diffi- cult for people with disabilities. Setting the right fine for each parking violation is compli-
cated because a few repeat violators often account for a large share of all violations. In LosAngeles, for example, 8%of all the license plates that received tickets in 2009 accounted for 29% of all the tickets in that year. In Beverly Hills, 5% of
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license plates accounted for 24% of all tickets. Californians are not the only serial offenders. InManchester,VT, 5%of the plates accounted for 22%of all tickets and inWinnipeg,Cana- da, 14%of the plates accounted for 47%of all tickets. Most drivers rarely or never receive a parking ticket, and
for these drivers, modest fines are a sufficient deterrent. But themany tickets for a fewrepeat offenders suggest thatmodest fines will not deter drivers who view parking violations as an acceptable gamble or just another cost of doing business.How- ever, if cities raise parking fines high enough to deter the few chronic violators, they unfairly penalizemanymore drivers for occasional (and often inadvertent) violations.
24 FEBRUARY 2011 • PARKING TODAY •
www.parkingtoday.com
ITIES OFTEN INCREASE THEIR parking fines when they need more money. LosAngeles, for example, is facing a major budget crisis and increased its fines for all parking
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