N.Y.C. PARKING VIOLATIONS SOON TO COST YOU A LOT MORE
Bergen Record
September 24, 2002
Remember the time you squeezed into a parking space on Fifth Avenue, thanked God for saving you the price of parking in a garage, but returned to find a ticket anyway because the front foot and a half of your car rested in a bus stop? Remember the $55 fine?
It's about to go to $105.
The city is cranking up the consequences of carefree parking. Blocking a fire hydrant or standing in a zone where the sign says "No Standing" also are going from $55 to $105, a 91 percent increase. The change is scheduled to take effect next Tuesday.
Some of the more obscure tickets also are going up. The price of parking where the sign says "No Standing: Snow Emergency" - even in July - or parking too close to a railroad crossing are going from $55 to $85.
Railroad crossing in the city? Actually there are several, says Glen Bolofsky, the president of Parking Survival Experts, a firm based in Paramus, which, for a fee of half the fine, will compose a letter for you to request a dismissal of parking tickets issued in New York, Washington, and San Francisco, and guarantee you a dismissal or a reduction in charges.
Parking in a crosswalk goes to $105. So do blocking a fire hydrant and double parking.
For now at least, the penalty for overtime parking at a meter remains the same - $55.
Commuters, for the most part, are not affected by the new schedule of fines. "I don't know of anyone who drives to work in the city who doesn't use a garage or a parking lot," says Mary Anne Morrisey of River Edge. "No one in his right mind is going to take a chance either on finding a metered spot or running downstairs all day long to feed it."
One group of people who could get socked are weekend visitors to the city. "You take a guy who decides to meet his son in Little Italy for dinner on Saturday or Sunday," says George Meade, the traffic reporter at WOR radio. "That's the guy who might take a chance and, you know, forget to feed the meter, park a little close to a hydrant, or take a spot at the end of a cab stand."
Parking in a lot downtown can cost $30 to $40 for a few hours, Meade says. The math is simple. If Dad from the Suburbs gets away with it, so much the better. If he gets a ticket for $105, it's about double the price of parking in a lot. "It's a gamble," Meade says.
Also at risk are cab drivers who are asked to wait while a fare runs into a store or office. The smart ones will not wait in place. "In a situation like that, we don't park or stand," says Phyllis Carlone, the manager of Babe's Yellow Cab in Fort Lee. "We circle the block a couple of times."
Now you might expect Gordon Hamm to be thrilled with the new fines. Hamm manages 70 parking garages throughout Manhattan with a combined 15,000 parking spots. Higher fines equal more driver fear, which equals more applications for monthly spots in Hamm's garages, right?
Not necessarily.
"For it to have a serious effect, they have to enforce it vigorously," Hamm says. "A few years ago Rudy [Giuliani] came down hard on double-parkers. It was his quality-of-life thing, remember? The police were all over the place handing out tickets, and we saw a surge in business. But if they don't pursue it seriously, it won't have much of an effect."
The greatest delays in driving through Manhattan, Hamm says, are not caused by the volume of traffic, but by the large numbers of double parked cars and trucks.
"Move them, and traffic moves," Hamm says.
