The NYC City Council approved a bill on Monday (11/16/09) that would provide a five-minute grace period to drivers who are late to feed a muni-meter or move their cars on street-cleaning days.  The five-minute period would apply to muni-meters, which control parking spaces and issue a receipt stating the time of expiration, and alternate-side parking rules, which require drivers to move their cars at a certain time for street cleaning. It would not apply to coin-operated meters, because there’s no mechanism available to tell when they expired.

Mayor Bloomberg vowed to veto the legislation..

Those for the legislation claim:

• Drivers are tired of being hassled, especially in a tough economy.  About 280,000 tickets were issued in fiscal 2008 for alternate-side parking violations within five minutes of the required time, which corresponds to about one-quarter of all parking tickets issued in the city that year.
• It’s good PR.  This city IS on your side…

Those against the measure and on Bloomberg’s side claim:

• The bill will lead to chaos on the streets.  Judgment and grace aren’t things that can be legislated/codified.  Deadlines are codified and that is that.
• The bill creates a perception that parking illegally is punishable only when a violation is blatant or to an extent excessive.  This potentially leads to more curbside arguments.

The Mayor says a grace period would only breed confusion in a system that is already ripe for confrontation. He questioned whose watch is going to be used to make all these judgment points.

I think the Mayor hit the nail on the head with his question about “whose watch”.  It proves that this entire issue is nonsense.  Parking Agents have been using their own judgment all along.  Muni-meter receipt is good until 8pm?  What stops an Agent from issuing a ticket at 7:59pm because they consider their watch a little slow?  Or because the Agent had a bad day or doesn’t like a bumper sticker on the car?  On the other hand, what leads an Agent to not issue a ticket in the same situation at 8:03pm?  In both cases the Agent simply gets to look at his watch and make a discretionary call.  His watch may be fast or slow.  He may be sympathetic and patient or the complete opposite.

Now this entire scenario will unfold surrounding 8:05 instead of 8:00 on the nose and it’s somehow supposed to make a difference?

The point is it’s been a “judgment” call all along, legislation or no legislation.

In any case, expect the legislation to pass.  The Council approved it by 47 to 2, a vote well in excess of the two-thirds support needed to override any veto Mayor Bloomberg is planning.

Also expect this to not make a difference in your life.  Cut it too close–whether it’s a time based violation or distance from a fire hydrant or crosswalk–and you increase the chances you’ll get a ticket.  Avoid parking tickets by parking smart and giving yourself buffers of both time and space, not by relying on some imaginary grace period that legislators are about to pass so they can look good in the eyes of their constituency.

Submitted by Scott Feifer

Between 2006 and 2008, 553 tickets were issued for speeding at 100 mph or higher in Orange County, Sullivan County and Ulster County.

Almost half of those were issued on State Route 17.

In comparison, police issued 160 tickets to drivers of 100 mph or more on the Thruway, and 82 such tickets on I-84.

As a traffic ticket attorney (and an occasional user of Route 17) I’m tempted to be cynical about the reasons for the higher number of extreme speeding tickets on Route 17 in comparison to other roadways.  Route 17 is one of the most heavily patrolled roadways I’ve seen.  You can’t drive 5 miles without seeing either a car stop in progress or an officer waiting on the side of the road ready to initiate a car stop at any moment.  The attorney advertisements on the billboards along Route 17 are a testament to the excessive number of traffic tickets issued along the roadway. Moreover, some of the most difficult courts we’ve dealt with have been in Orange and Sullivan County which could suggest, if we are being cynical about it, an overall system that is too harsh on drivers.

However, no matter how you look at it, or what the reason for the big numbers on Route 17 is, there is absolutely no excuse for driving at speeds in excess of 100 mph.  It puts yourself and anyone else on the road in extreme danger.  There are formulas involved when designing expressways.  Engineers make sure there is enough time and space between exit signs and ramps for drivers to react safely. Curves are designed to be handled at specific speeds.  Extreme speeding severly impacts a motorist’s field of vision and reduces reaction time.  The probability of a crash increases dramatically.

If you think you have some legal justification for driving that speed, it’s unlikely you do.  It would be an extremely rare situation where the law allowed for an ordinary vehicle and untrained emergency driver to proceed at that speed instead of stopping and calling 911.

While Route 17 may be considered by some to be one giant speed trap, I hope everyone driving over 100 mph is indeed “trapped” sooner than later.  It’s just not safe.

Submitted by Scott Feifer.

According to the 2009 Urban Mobility Report, we spend 4.2 billion hours sitting in traffic each year.

That’s a lot of hours.  In case you are curious, that adds up to the total number of hours in the entire lifetime of approximately 6,244 men.  Over 6,000 entire lifetimes in a single year wasted sitting there just trying to get somewhere else.

Makes all the teleportation experimentation seem well worth while even with the occasional fly/human DNA mix up.

Men’s Health magazine took a short break from letting us know 7 ways for better sex and how to get your abs ripped in 28 seconds to ask men their thoughts on traffic congestion.  Some of the more interesting questions and results:

• 53% consider traffic a major stressor in their life
• 26% spend more than 1.5 hrs/day commuting
• 71% said commuting with their significant other would NOT improve their relationship
• 76% blame other drivers, not roadway design, for the congestion
• 70% say they don’t ever get impatient and try to jump ahead in long lines of traffic (not surprising then that 68% consider those who do to be “thoughtless, selfish jerks”)
• 52% consider distracted drivers the greatest threat on the road.  Only 25% answered drivers under the influence.
• 60% said they would commute 3x as far for the chance to triple their salary

What can we do as a society, on the road, to ease the congestion?

• Obey “ramp meters”.  You know those red lights as you enter the highway that seem to be useless?  You ask yourself why should I stop if it’s all clear?  If everyone actually obeyed them, thus spacing traffic a little better, those 20 seconds or so could end up saving 5 or 10 minutes overall.
• Stay in the center lane as much as possible and only switch lanes when necessary.  This reduces accidents (and subsequent delays) as well as allows slower traffic to go right and faster traffic to move left.
• Don’t tailgate.  More tailgating means more/quicker use of brake lights.  One person slightly touches their brakes and then there is a “shock-wave” that can extend way down the roadway and cause others to brake.  In the long run, this does nothing but slow the overall flow of traffic even though an individual who tailgates may “feel” like he is getting somewhere as quickly as possible.