New York City’s new ‘five minute grace’ period on parking meters comes into effect this week. Essentially this means that if a meter is recorded by an enforcement officer as being over time, they must wait five minutes before writing the ticket.
Whilst the process of how this will actually work is not clear at this point in time, it seems to be a waste of time and resources for the sake of some cheap political points. The City Council passed the law last year, overruling the veto of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who claims it will lead to total chaos, not just on the streets, but also in the courts.
Technology could be an easy solution to the problem, by adding an extra five ‘free’ minutes to the time purchased; but there will always be people who are caught just as the meter ticks over – which has always been the issue of contention for parking enforcement.
What do you think? Is discretion the better part of grace? Or did they create a can of subjective worms?