Councilman Vacca Introduces Reusable Muni-Meter Receipt Legislation

HOLY COW!!! If you thought a snow balls chance in hell had a better probability then the city passing legislation that would save people from onerous parking tickets, you might be proven wrong. Councilman James Vacca is behind the simple but ground breaking legislation where fairness trumps the cities insatiable need for parking ticket revenue.

Gregory
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Continuing his fight for parking fairness, Councilman James Vacca, Chair of the Council’s Transportation Committee, will be introducing legislation at the City Council Stated Meeting on Wednesday, February 1st. The bill would allow drivers who purchase muni-meter time at one location, to use the remaining time at a different muni-meter location.

New York City Department of Transportation officials have already stated that drivers who have time left on a muni-meter receipt can use that time elsewhere. However, judges and traffic enforcement agents have disagreed with this policy, forcing drivers to pay tickets when they have attempted to use purchased muni-meter time in a different part of the city outside where the muni meter time was initially purchased.

“New York City now raises over $600 million a year from drivers through parking tickets and fines. Many view the installation of muni-meters as another way for the city to increase revenue even though the city has consistently told us this was not the case. My legislation makes it clear that we will not be nickel and quartering drivers and they will be allowed to take excess time with them to their next location,” Vacca said.

Councilman Vacca encourages his colleagues to co-sponsor this bill.

NYC Council Transportation Committee Conducting Public Hearing on Various Bills Related to Parking in NYC on Wednesday June 22nd

For everyone out there who has ever been frustrated by parking tickets policies in NYC, here is your opportunity to speak up. The NYC Transportation committee will hold a public meeting on Wednesday June 22, to discuss a slew of proposals designed to improve NYC's parking situation. The following letter was sent by NYC Speaker Quinn and NYC Councilman Vacca.

Gregory
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June 20, 2011

Dear New Yorker,

We hope everyone found the City Council's spring transportation report to be helpful and informative. A number of residents wrote back to share their input and feedback, all of which was very instructive and will be forwarded to the staff of our Transportation Committee for further review. If you didn't receive the report but would like to, please let us know and we'll be sure to forward you a copy.

This Wednesday, June 22nd, our Transportation Committee will be holding a public hearing on a package of bills aimed at improving parking across the five boroughs.

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. in the 14th Floor Committee Room at 250 Broadway in Lower Manhattan and will cover the following bills:

Proposed Int. No. 44-A: Co-sponsored by Council Members Jessica Lappin and Brad Lander, this bill would create one-day temporary parking permits. That way, for example, the next time you move into a new apartment, you'd be able to park your truck in the parking lane where parking or standing is otherwise be prohibited and not have to worry about getting a ticket.

Proposed Int. No. 231-A: Sponsored by Council Member James Vacca, this bill would require photographs to be included with certain notices of violation for parking violations.

Int. No. 301: Sponsored by Council Member Dan Garodnick, this bill would require the NYC Department of Finance to dismiss parking violations issued for the failure to display a muni-meter receipt if the driver provides a valid receipt from the time the ticket was issued.

Int. No. 372: Sponsored by Council Member Stephen Levin, this bill would suspend alternate side of the street parking rules on blocks adjacent to where film crews are shooting.

Int. No. 465: Sponsored by Council Member Dan Garodnick, this bill would require parking placards to have a barcode so that traffic enforcement agents can confirm their validity;

Int. No. 609: Sponsored by Council Member Joel Rivera, this bill would allow for an electronic signature for persons who contest a parking ticket online. That way, motorists who decide to contest a parking ticket online would not be required to appear in person before the Parking Violations Bureau simply to submit a signature.

Int. No. 610: When a parking ticket is upheld by an Administrative Judge, the violation can begin to accumulate additional fines after seven days. Under this bill, sponsored by Council Member James Sanders, additional penalties would not accumulate until 30 days after parking ticket has been upheld by an Administrative Judge.

If you're interested in testifying and/or have any stories that relate to these bills that that you'd like to share with us, please feel free to contact Nivardo Lopez in the NYC Council Human Services Division at (212) 788-9087/nlopez@council.nyc.gov. You can also email your comments and stories to us at speakerquinn@council.nyc.gov, and we'll be sure to forward them to the Committee's staff to be included in the official record for Wednesday's hearing.

Again, we hope everyone found our spring transportation report to be helpful. We're planning to issue a second report at the end of the summer but will definitely keep everyone up-to-date on any new transportation-related developments or initiatives that happen before then.

Thanks so much and have a wonderful week.

Sincerely,
Christine C. Quinn
Speaker
NYC Council

James Vacca
Chair, Transportation Committee
NYC Council