Posted by Ilya Somin:
Dangers of DC Parking:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_05_17-2009_05_23.shtml#1242884715
A couple weeks ago, the DC police gave me not one but two tickets for
parking in an area where it is forbidden to do so from 9 AM to 1 PM.
The only problem was that both tickets were issued between 11 PM and 1
AM. Fortunately, I had my digital camera with me and took photos of my
car, as well as a nearby sign that clearly indicated that parking at
the time I was there is permitted. I sent in the photos along with
detailed written statement. We'll see if if the DC authorities have
the basic honesty to admit their error. I am not optimistic.
Normally, I wouldn't bother VC readers with this kind of personal
gripe. However, economics blogger Megan McCardle reports that such
shenanigans are part of a broader campaign by the DC government to
increase ticket revenue:
At 7:30 this morning, far earlier than I normally leave my house, I
was outside in flip-flops and my pajama shorts, moving my car. Nor
was I the only one. My neighborhood is filled with students and
people who work from home, and a whole lot of them seemed to be
making U turns to park across the street.
Why was I doing this? The District of Columbia is trying to make up
plummeting tax revenues by [1]getting the money out of motorists,
especially parking. It's using cameras to get 100% enforcement of
the street cleaning parking rules, nearly doubling the cost of many
parking tickets, and upping the bill on meters--it now costs $2 an
hour to park in front of the Watergate, up from $1 last month. This
is a twofer: raise more revenue from the meter, and from the
parking ticket, because who carries around $4 in change on a
regular basis?
Anecdotally, they've also upped the quota on parking enforcement,
which used to be more of a sinecure; my mother reports that she now
has three parking enforcement officers in her small neighborhood,
constantly patrolling rather than (as they used to) sleeping in
front of the Congressional cemetary. They've started ticketing her
for being an "out of state car" persistently parked in the
neighborhood. I got a ticket for having no front plate, something I
didn't know was required. The district has even started ticketing
people for [2]parking in their own driveways. After their budget
meeting, the city council announced plans to raise millions in new
revenue by issuing an additional 200,000 tickets this year.
[3]Urban development scholar Donald Shoup has shown that urban
curbside parking spaces are often overused and misallocated because
motorists don't have to pay for them. Thus, there may be an efficiency
rationale for raising the price of public parking on DC streets.
However, violating the law, charging people for parking in their own
driveways, and trying to surprise drivers by suddenly ramping up
enforcement in order to make a quick buck are not the right way to go
about it. It's pretty obvious that DC is trying to use tickets as a
cash cow rather than as a tool for incentivizing more efficient use of
public spaces.
I sent in the photos along with a detailed written statement appealing
the tickets to the DC [4]Department of Motor Vehicles Adjudication
Services. We'll see if the DC authorities have the common decency to
admit their ridiculous error. Personally, I am not optimistic that
they will.
References
1. http://www.news8.net/news/stories/0509/622272.html
2. http://www.wtop.com/?sid=1659296&nid=695
3. http://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking/dp/1884829988
4. http://dmv.dc.gov/info/CStreetadjudicationservices.shtm
_______________________________________________
Volokh mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
