When a note under your windshield wiper says ‘Parking Fine’, they are not complimenting your driving ability.
It’s no laughing matter for municipalities when millions of dollars worth of unpaid parking ticket are going to collection agencies every year. Most budgets are already stretched and tax increases are often exceeding wage increases.
Interestingly, last year in Saanich – where there’s no meter parking – total parking fine revenue amounted to $26,630. Incredibly, during the last four years 24 tickets valued at $1,430 went to collections.
It’s a totally different story in Victoria, even though 80 per cent of drivers eventually pay their parking fines.
It’s a larger commercial centre, lots of traffic, on-street metered parking, and dedicated parking ambassadors that may ticket you.
Last year – a pandemic year with less traffic – total parking fine revenue was $3.8 million. Some $980,000 was sent to collections and 30 per cent of these minor miscreants eventually paying up.
Do the math. That kind of lost revenue would go along way to pay for the new $33.7 M Fire Hall No. 1 set to open this year.
The city says they don’t expect improvements unless the province or ICBC assists with collections.
But many jurisdictions perennially struggling with unpaid parking fines have successfully tried other innovative solutions. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a hardball, no-win situation.
Halifax garnered some national attention recently by offering shoppers a way of dealing with a parking ticket. People can spend $35 at a local business within three hours of parking to have the ticket waived. It’s a pilot program this summer designed to help businesses recover from the pandemic.
Saskatoon staff just tabled a report on what they call ‘parking scofflaws’ as a result of having 15 per cent of parking tickets unpaid.
It recommended changing bylaws to be able to mail tickets, changing the display and layout of parking tickets to encourage early payment and the reduced penalty for doing so.
It recommended lobbying the province and SGI, the provincial insurance agency, for legislative amendments to restrict the ability for residents to obtain a driver’s license or register a vehicle while they have unpaid fines from outstanding parking tickets. Municipalities in B.C. have also tried getting these solutions for years without success.
In Tulsa, OK. the municipal court had 82,000 outstanding parking tickets so they offered drivers an amnesty. If you came to city hall and paid your original ticket amount, all subsequent penalties were waived.
Victoria may want to reconsider a proposal – help the food banks – from a resident a few years ago that was turned down. The ‘Food for fines’ was pitched as a way to cover unpaid parking tickets for those 30 days past due or more. Food or a cash donation receipt from a food bank was considered eligible.
Toronto got fed up with chronic offenders and changed their policy. If you have three unpaid tickets after 75 days, they can tow your vehicle. You end up paying for the tow job, not to mention the cost of the ticket(s) and all the time and mental frustration that goes along with it.
Consider the approach in Costa Rica years ago where parking enforcement officers carried screw drivers just for chronic offenders. You only get your license plate back after paying your fine at city hall.
In several municipalities, drivers can pay their ticket immediately by inserting a credit card in the parking meter kiosk.
The vexing issue of unpaid parking tickets has been around forever and some local politicians are reluctant to take either a softer or harder approach.
A few years ago the provincial Ombudsperson even developed a 68-page best practices guide for local government because municipalities were taking varying and unsuccessful approaches. “Fair, responsible and transparent practices in bylaw enforcement can enhance citizen confidence in local government and can save public dollars….and ultimately foster community harmony,” he said.
Nobody likes parking tickets.
As a result, residents can drive to the nearest mall where there’s free parking. The business community suffers because there aren’t enough parking spots for customers. Tourists and visitors can vow to never return. One thing is certain – local politicians and city hall and council get a lot of flack and a public relations nightmare.
The end result is parking revenue – a significant source of much-needed municipal revenue – can nosedive.
On the other hand, if the issue of unpaid parking tickets becomes too big and there’s no or inadequate enforcement, it sends a terrible message to the public.
It undermines the rule of ‘bylaw,’ and in turn, the political system.