New York City – Bloomberg: I’ll Veto Grace Period for Parking Meters

New York City – So much for post-election populism.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Monday vowed to veto a popular City Council bill that would give ticket-fatigued drivers a five-minute grace period at thousands of electronic parking meters, saying it would lead to “chaos.”

The Council is set to pass the bill Monday afternoon, with overwhelming support, potentially setting the stage for the first legislative override of the mayor since his re-election.

“I will veto that. I think its a very misguided piece of legislation,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

He said that the grace period “is only going to lead to chaos and enormous increases in contested tickets” as drivers and traffic enforcement agents argue over the five minute buffer.

“Whose watch are you going to use?” the mayor asked.

The vote was to take place 10 months after the bill was first introduced and nine months after the Council’s Transportation Committee held a hearing on it. The New York Post has reported that the Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, orchestrated the delay as a favor to Mayor Bloomberg, who would have likely paid a price at the polls had he been forced to announce his opposition to the legislation before the election.

The mayor’s dismissive remarks on Monday suggested that little had changed since his narrow re-election two weeks ago. During the campaign, his Democratic opponent mocked the city’s aggressive enforcement of parking rules, which has infuriated drivers, and cost them dearly: most parking tickets start at more than $100.

Some predicted that the mayor would seek to appeal to those aggrieved drivers after the election. But he appeared unsympathetic at a Bronx food distribution center Monday.

He said the solution was to change the duration of the parking times that can be purchased at the electronic meters from 60 to 65 minutes. “But that 60 minutes and a grace period doesn’t make any sense to anybody,” he said.

“I think something that is explicit, so there are no arguments, is in everyone’s interest,” he said.

“We are going away from that,” he said of the Council proposal, “and just asking for chaos.”

Meanwhile Council Member Simcha Felder today issued below Press Release

The New York City Council is expected to pass two pieces of legislation by Council Member Simcha Felder (D-Boro Park, Midwood, Bensonhurst) that will end ‘Gotcha’ ticketing across the City. The first bill creates a five-minute “grace period” for drivers for certain no parking zones such as alternate side parking regulations and expired Muni-Meters. The second bill requires the City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) to post notices of new and changed parking restrictions in affected neighborhoods and online up to one week in advance.

“I want to thank Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Council Member John Liu, Chair of the Council’s Transportation Committee for recognizing that tickets should only be issued to promote compliance and not to generate revenue,” said Felder. “Anyone with common sense and decency understands the need for a five-minute grace period to eliminate ‘gotcha’ tickets.”

In 2007, almost 300,000 alternate side violations were issued within five minutes of the rule taking effect. Of those, nearly 28,000 tickets were issued exactly on the hour that the rule went into effect. A five-minute grace period was previously in place as part of the City’s traffic enforcement policy but has since been replaced with a suggestion to agents that they use common sense when doling out violations. Many drivers believe a grace period still exists. Several municipalities, including Miami, have parking grace periods in place.

Parking restrictions could previously be altered without prior notification to the affected communities, resulting in confusion and unfair parking tickets. Under the new legislation, drivers who receive tickets within five days of DOT’s posting of permanent parking changes have an affirmative defense that he or she was parked in compliance with applicable parking restrictions that were in effect prior to the change. DOT will only be required to post emergency parking changes when practical and motorists will be subject to towing in those areas.

“It is unreasonable for the City to change parking regulations and restrictions without letting the public know first,” said Councilman Felder. “Simple notification would ensure that drivers park safely and would reduce the number of unfair parking tickets.”

“Taken together, these parking bills will make parking around our city both clearer and fairer for all New York City drivers,” said Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn.