Re: speed traps practice (very remote Audi content)

["Ian J Haseltine" <jim_haseltine@email.msn.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrei Talalaevskii <andrei@insti.physics.sunysb.edu>
>
>By 1994 more than 3/4 of town's annual budget came from traffic fines
>(2,900 tickets a year for a 272 people town!). Once, they made a mistake
>and stopped a state legislator. He then proposed the law adopted in a
>year that "limited(!) the amount of income a city could generate from
>traffic tickets to 45(!!) % of total revenue".
>
>Now the town is in debt of $160,000 and is about to file for bankruptcy
>protection.

On a smaller scale a similar thing has happened here in the fair city of
York. A few years ago the city increased the number of parking wardens that
they employ, with the result that revenue from parking fines increased by a
considerable amount - so considerable that it became a major part of the
city's budget balancing act. Then, last year they discovered that the effect
of this was to cause most people to use the correct parking areas and
revenue took a nose-dive - GBP 1 to park for 2 hours or GBP 20 fine, which
would YOU choose?
The city's answer to this has been to introduce two-tier charges, one rate
if you are a citizen (with badge to prove it) and another (higher) rate if
you are a visitor. That way the city can fine visitors who miss the small
print on the signs and pay at the citizens rate.
The moral of this story is - if you ever visit York in a car, read the signs
_very_ carefully.


Jim Haseltine.