It is irrefutable that a reduction in the fine creates an incentive to break the law. The fact that the more dangerous parking violations result in smaller reductions than other violations is hardly a reason to support a codification of the the program. There are reductions under the program for parking in the bike lane, blocking a fire hydrant, taking a “handicap only” space, and parking on the sidewalk and crosswalk. As any NYC resident knows, when people see trucks breaking these laws, they feel more comfortable committing the same violations with cars. The program generates lawlessness and creates danger.

And the reason we need the program is because trucks need relief from parking fines? Costs which they pass on to customers 100%? Only with full enforcement of the parking laws against trucks will trucking companies have an incentive to avoid incurring fines in the first place. With relief from the fines–even partial relief–improved compliance with parking rules will have less effect on the bottom line, and therefore the incentive to comply will be less.

I am going to keep this short as I think in my first posting I clearly stated what stipulated fine does and does not do. I do not disagree with your concerns and I am becoming a supporter of such programs as Curbside Parking Space expansion and other ideas as well.

I do not understand your comment however “that institutionalizing the Stipulated Fine Program is the last thing we want to do” because if you gave me the same respect I am giving you, you would understand that it has nothing to do with the problem or solutions you seek. It is merely an alternative adjudication process that does work and does not do what you think it does. I am the foremost authority on this subject and I am being completely honest about everything I have said, including seeing your concerns and views, but on this you are making conclusions based on anger about the real problems and targeting a bill that will not help you, only hurt others.

As for the “big guys” versus operators of smaller fleets, why don’t you give me some examples of smaller fleet operators and we’ll see if they have ended up on MyBikeLane. My guess is they have, even though that site only shows the tip of the iceberg in terms of bike lane parking in NYC. It is the big guys one would expect to have the most professional and effective training programs, not the smaller operators. If Fedex can’t get it together enought to train its drivers not to incur thousands in tickets, how will Joe’s Trucking Inc.?

For the record, and as I have commented here previously on many occasions, I believe the solution is a dramatic expansion of dedicated curbside parking spaces for commercial deliveries, including on residential streets. The remaining parking spaces (at least in densely developed areas) should be largely or completely converted to non-commercial long-term metered parking carefully priced to market so that everyone pays for the “free” parking space they get.

Not withstanding anything you said, the need for better parking practices and the need for real solutions is a fact. But, the issue of the stipulated fines program versus no program is an issue that has no relative effect on these issues. Here is why; without the program the big companies you discuss would and did use attorneys, ticket brokers and centralized adjudications before the program ever existed, the results at the end-of-the-day were and are that they would pay about the same amount overall, of reduced fines without the program; but here is the kicker, safety related violations were as often dismissed as non-safety violations by judges given a defense. This is not the case with stipulated fines, where the safety violations get only minimally reduced and non-safety violations get greater reductions, so the program encourages not parking in safety violation areas which includes Bike Lane.

It is not the program. The issues you are concerned about can only be relieved through better training, which we are working hard on and better parking availability for delivery solutions, that together we can agree on and request our legislators to enact.

Also, we represent many small business trucking, delivery and service companies and owner operators who are not the giants you discuss, these are people who live and work here and it is them that get hurt, not the huge national companies.

To my knowledge our outreach to you and your fellow Bikers may be a first from any organization in this business, it is my desire that through communication we can reduce miss-information, target issues and find the solutions that match the issues.

Ken

Also, there are delivery workers who deliberately seek out bike lanes as a place to park because they can expect them to be clear, even when they could equally well double park in front of the addresses to which they are making deliveries. These Fedex guys park in the Central Park West bike lane across the street from their delivery destination every morning, six days a week. I have spoken to them about it but they won’t move. They like the extra room available in the bike lane as a place to sort their packages prior to delivery. And, I suppose, if they were to park in front of the residences to which they deliver, the residents and doormen might complain. I can tell you from personal experience, and based on these ~200 posts of illegal parking by FedEx–some of which document attempts to involve the company in addressing the illegal parking by drivers–Fedex does not care about illegal and dangerous parking by its drivers. Individual drivers routinely rack up thousands >in fines, and nothing changes. UPS and are no different. I end up paying for this illegal parking twice–once as a bicyclist, then a second time as a consumer because of the heightened shipping costs these companies pass through to me based on the (reduced) fines needlessly incurred because their drivers so often don’t even attempt to find legal parking.

The DoT’s description of the Stipulated Fine Program states that it “requires participating companies to make good-faith efforts to comply with New York City Traffic Rules.” In December 2006 I sent DoF a FOIL request for “all records referring to or evidencing the termination of any participant in the [Stipulated Fine] Program from the Program, based on a participant’s failure “to make good-faith efforts to comply with New York City Traffic Rules.” The DoF finally responded after 17 months, notifying me last week that “there are no records responsive to your request.” That means DoF has never terminated a participant from the Stipulated Fine Program for failing to attempt to follow the law. It is not surprising that bicyclists–who daily bear the brunt of this system of officially sanctioned illegal and dangerous parking–are not convinced by statements of good intentions when the reality is so demonstrably different.

You are right, it is a dangerous practice and yes, we do not only inform our member drivers but we also have a best parking practices seminar which is designed to help them understand safe parking practices better. Truth is we have a long way to go in a difficult City whose infrastructure taxes our movement as people and businesses. I must point out that the program does not reward a driver when they park in a Bike Lane, in fact it, along with other safety violations, gives them nothing except a token 10 bucks which accounts for the small percentage a Judge would award anyway. The point is, the program is not the problem, the problem needs to be addressed by solutions in availability of safe and available parking for companies to deliver goods and services to us all.

We are actually looking at Curbside Parking as well as other solutions to create a program we can get behind and will support it or any other reasonable solutions that are not designed as punishment for an industry that serves us all and has a harder time, than you probably appreciate, working in NYC. Insofar barricades are concerned, not sure if creating more concrete in this city is going to help or even if it is physically possible to do without making things worse, that said more ideas, maybe more solutions.

Your members park their trucks in bike lanes hundreds, perhaps, tens of hundreds of times per day across New York City.

This irresponsible action by truck drivers endangers cyclists, forcing them to veer off and merge into motor vehicle traffic.

Have you ever done anyhing to inform your members of the danger of double-parking and unloading in bike lanes?

Have you ever done anything to push for curbside parking reform or to advocate for physically protected bike paths located between the parked cars and the sidewalk?

How exactly do you “support” livable streets advocates?

If you would like the truth about these programs and accurate assessments please visit: http://www.nytda.net/newsltrs/Publication2_stipulated_fines.pdf

Our association does believe in the causes of public safety and environmentally conscious people. We do ask that you seek solutions that are relevant and are not knee jerk reactions that are not going to solve the problems you would like them to but only harm people and businesses who are not your enemy. The infrastructure and manner in which is managed is the problem here, not the choices people have in adjudicating parking tickets.

The stipulated fines program reduces tickets consistent with actual hearings; it never reduces parking tickets to zero unless the vehicle is double parked (except midtown) for unloading which is allowed by law no matter what program or service is used to adjudicate them even stipulated fines. Bike lanes, Fire Hydrants, Bus Stops, Cross Walks, Ped Ramps etc are all charged full fine less only ten dollars to account for the very small percentage that would have been otherwise dismissed. As said above: More at: http://www.nytda.net/newsltrs/Publication2_stipulated_fines.pdf

You have our support, we would appreciate yours.

Ken Thorpe
Chairman
NYTDA

Without radical street surgery, it’s the only way to reclaim rights and space.

You hear so many stories about so and so having dozens of violations before someone gets killed. At maybe a hundred bucks a pop, these violations may be no big deterrent. But if that fine doubled each time, after a $100 violation has been issued 12 times, instead of being $1,200, it’s $409,500!

That said, the laws must be based in reality. Clearly delivery trucks need a place to park for short periods in order to make deliveries. Delivery vehicles beat individuals driving to get the stuff-though bicycle delivery should be encouraged. How about reserving curb side space on each block for which delivery companies pay by the minute with a swipe card.
Alternatively, a fee based permit for delivery vehicles allowing double parking for very limited periods (5 min max), provided the parked vehicles do not block traffic (specific regs)-with high fines for violating the rules.