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Vision Vancouver's War on Cars


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  • 4 weeks later...

The Vancouver Province's Sam Cooper article "Vancouverites accuse parking enforcers of unfair tickets, foul language, even racism".

Hundreds of Vancouverites have accused the city’s parking enforcement officers of a string of wrongs, including giving outrageously unfair tickets, swearing at and threatening drivers, and making false accusations and racist comments, according to complaints obtained by The Province.

Recently The Province reported on about 300 “incident reports” filed by parking enforcement officers between January 2010 to December 2012, in which officers alleged assaults, death threats and excessive verbal abuse on the part of drivers.

But a separate review of calls recorded to the city’s 3-1-1 service in the same time period — which were released to The Province under freedom-of-information legislation — reveals the other side of the story.

The general tone of 253 citizen complaints suggests frustration, indignation and anger from city drivers who think unreasonable city employees are lying in the weeds ready to pounce on motorists’ wallets, in what amounts to “a corrupt money grab” by city hall.

RACIST COMMENTS ALLEGED

Many drivers who feel they have been given unfair tickets — through meter malfunction or officer error, for example — complain the new process to dispute unfair tickets by adjudication rather than the courts is tilted in favour of the city.

In one call a driver claimed an officer made racist comments about “Asian people”.

In another case, a 24-year-old woman called to complain she was allegedly “side-swiped” by a parking officer while driving downtown. The woman claimed she started to cry and the parking officer laughed at her, and told her to “check her attitude.”

In another case, a driver claimed an officer yelled at him and falsely accused the driver of abusing his child. A police investigation cleared the driver, the driver claimed.

DISCIPLINE? NO COMMENT

The Province tried to determine whether any of these cases resulted in employee discipline, but a city spokesperson said that information cannot be disclosed for privacy reasons. All complaints are reviewed internally, the spokesperson said. Identities have been blotted out in the documents released to The Province.

A common theme in many complaints was drivers stopping briefly in non-metered areas to drop off or pick up elderly, disabled, or child passengers, and getting slapped with fines.

Drivers complained that officers acted without reason or mercy in these cases.

FEEDING HER BABY

In one case a mother described paying for a meter by phone while stopping to breast-feed her child in the car. Her meter time ran out and she paid again by phone minutes later, but was slammed with a ticket anyway.

“Citizen feels it is totally unreasonable to receive a $70 ticket in this situation,” her 3-1-1 complaint stated.

Drivers also complained that infraction tickets are making it impossible to live in an already unaffordable city. One single mother even offered to do community service, saying she couldn’t afford to put a $100 fine on her credit card.

REVENUE SOURCE

Money collected from parking meters and parking tickets is a major and rising source of revenue for the City of Vancouver.

In 2012, parking meter revenue and parking tickets generated $64.3 million for city coffers. There were 301,478 tickets issued in 2012.

Money actually collected from fined motorists started trending above $17 million per year in 2011, apparently due to the city’s new fine adjudication system, while the number of tickets issued has dropped.

‘PENALIZED FOR APPEALING’

Vancouver elementary school teacher Bonnie Dakin, who has called 3-1-1 to complain about two allegedly unfair tickets in 2013, said the city’s new adjudication system “needs a total overhaul, because you are penalized for appealing.”

Under the old traffic court system, judges would give a fair hearing and cancel or reduce tickets for “extenuating circumstances” if a driver had good reasons, Dakin said. But adjudicators won’t listen to the circumstances surrounding a ticket, and cannot reduce amounts.

“I felt as a citizen very rightfully served with fair process before, but now they’ve stripped it away and we’re being shortchanged,” Dakin said.

THEY SEEM ‘VULTUROUS’

After reading The Province’s previous story on serious conflicts involving parking officers and motorists, Dakin said she felt “terrible for these guys that are physically harassed,” but with what seems to be an escalating war between Vancouver drivers and city employees, intensifying conflicts are “completely understandable.”

“They’ve hired so many of these yellow-jacket officers, and they are hovering and trying to get drivers for niggling issues,” Dakin said. “They just seem to be vulturous.”

CITY UNYIELDING

When asked whether the city would consider reviewing the new adjudication system based on citizen complaints obtained by The Province in this story, a city spokesperson said “many other municipalities have gone in the direction,” of the new ticket adjudication system.

And on the issue of citizen complaints of meters not registering their coins, the spokesperson said meters are guaranteed to register coins accurately 98 per cent of the time.

Examples of complaints against Vancouver parking bylaw officers

“Racist to the citizen. The officer rolled her eyes at the citizen and quoted “Asian people!”

“The officer wouldn’t give him the ticket until he finished delivering a demeaning lecture on why he didn’t park somewhere else, how lazy he is, how stupid he is.”

“She was trying to dispute the ticket with the officer but the officer asked her ‘are you deaf’ and said ‘stop being a bitch.’

“She was sideswiped by the parking enforcement vehicle … she was a bit shaken up so she started to cry ... and the employee began laughing at her.”

“I was shocked by the lack of compassion and consideration and respect displayed by this city employee. The parking guy was yelling at the elderly driver to move otherwise he would issue a ticket.”

“Citizen was dropping off his friend who has a full body brace … officer yelled at the citizen and indicated that he could have given the citizen a ticket for stopping there.”

“The bylaw officer then made a report to the police that the citizen was “shaking his kid and was harsh on his kid and injured his kid” … citizen has paperwork from the police if needed.”

“The officer approached and said “What are you, an idiot? Why would you park here? … The officer became abusive, wild even, when he realized he was being filmed.”

“Hi there Mayor Gregor … I want to say that I am a big fan. I know that part of your vision for the city is to reduce the number of commuter drivers, which I actually totally agree with, but for some of us, we don’t have the option of biking or taking public transit.”

“I am writing to register my displeasure with the city’s ever expanding parking enforcement money rackets. I can barely afford to live in this city anymore. The fees are outrageous. “

“She is a single mom with one child and $100 is a large expense for a parking ticket ... if the city offered choices such as community service and garbage pickup as a compensation for these fines, that would be very helpful to people who can’t afford to pay the tickets.”

“Citizen said he was walking up to the parking meter to pay and he said the officer said ‘what are you doing? You’re stupid. You can’t park here.’

“Adjudication hearing took place yesterday by phone and citizen feels it was handled unfairly. Citizen indicates he would have chosen to pay the lesser fine, had he known there would be no discussion in the adjudication hearing.”

“Parking expired at 2:32 p.m., ticket was issued at 2:37 p.m., citizen paid by phone again at 2:40 p.m. Citizen was breast feeding her child at this time. Citizen feels it is totally unreasonable to receive a $70 ticket in this situation.”

“She said the parking enforcement officer was so rude, she wanted to punch her in the face.”

“He states that there was no signage whatsoever within the vicinity, and that it was a very unfair ticket. He is hoping that someone will take the time to hear him out.”

“She stopped for 10 seconds while letting her elderly grandfather who is 70 with a cane get into her car. There should be more discretion when issuing tickets that understand human courtesy/logic.”

“Not only do I get dinged $50 for a B.S. Parking ticket, if I want to dispute and lose, I have to pay another $25. You folks are killing me here.”

“She didn’t explain why he got a ticket despite the meter not accepting new coins.”

“Parking enforcement is the biggest scam … Arbitrary with their rules as they make them up as they go along.”

“It has been increasingly frustrating paying for parking at meters across the city which do not accept new coins… I feel that this is another grab from the city for extra parking tickets, as well as making parking more difficult in an already expensive and busy city.”

“The parking enforcement officer made the citizen stall so that it looked like he stopped. He was moving and the enforcement officer’s vehicle was right behind his. There was a parked vehicle in front and the caller had to stop. He believes she was unjust in giving him a ticket.”

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Vancouverites+accuse+parking+enforcers+unfair+tickets+foul+language+even+racism/8318283/story.html#ixzz2SLZClWQK

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Vancouver Province editorial on the new parking scheme enacted by "Mayor Gregor Robertson and his similarly minded motorist-hating Vision councillors".

As reported Wednesday by Sam Cooper, hundreds of motorists have complained to Vancouver City Hall about its new and profoundly unjust parking-enforcement scheme. But those angry about the aggressiveness of parking-enforcement officers, the city's nearly North America-leading meter rates, the huge expansion in enforcement hours and the number of meters, not to mention the elimination of a fair, impartial appeal process, almost certainly number in the thousands.

Most people who feel they have received an unfair ticket simply don't bother to complain; it's easier to pay the fine, and the appeal system introduced by Mayor Gregor Robertson and his similarly minded motorist-hating Vision councillors is so unfair that the average Joe or Jill can't get a fair shake.

Meter parking has traditionally been used to encourage short-term parking in business districts. But under Vision, it's been hugely expanded as a cash grab; total parking revenue and fines doubled to $64.3 million in 2012 from $32.2 million in 2009.

People with complaints have been calling the city's general line — 311 — but it would be more effective if everyone called the mayor directly. It's time for citizens to fight back. Vancouver citizens should remind the mayor that they collectively own the streets and street parking, not Vision Vancouver.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Editorial+Citizens+waking+unfair+parking+scheme/8326022/story.html#ixzz2SLZtb8P2

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Why should it be free? Even when I pay I still can't find a spot, imagine what free parking will do.

Improve public transit, have dedicated bus lanes, I don't mind having a car free Vancouver, we just need an alternative besides cycling. The transit system is very inconvenient, start with that first

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It's all about making a choice about trading off where you live, how much you pay, and how you commute.

When I lived in Vancouver I lived right in the heart of Kerrisdale. I could walk to everything I needed, and had great access to several bus lines that ran E-W to and from UBC and N-S to and from downtown. I often had a monthly bus pass and mostly got around just fine. We did have a car as well, but that was mostly for my wife to get to work.

Now that we live in Toronto, we pay extra to live downtown near the subway and street car. We walk to all of our shops and have gotten rid of our car.

I tell you, Saving the car payment + insurance + gas sure is nice. We plowed a lot of that into increasing our rent budget to get a larger place closer to downtown, get a transit pass, take the occasional taxi, and we still come out ahead.

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Why should it be free? Even when I pay I still can't find a spot, imagine what free parking will do.

Improve public transit, have dedicated bus lanes, I don't mind having a car free Vancouver, we just need an alternative besides cycling. The transit system is very inconvenient, start with that first

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No one is saying it should be free - but Vancouver is Number 2 in North America in cost.

However the real issues are a lack of a proper appeal process and the attitude of the officers.

You cannot have a car free Vancouver because of the number of people coming from the suburbs where transit is not a viable option and how about those who require a vehicle during their workday?

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No one is saying it should be free - but Vancouver is Number 2 in North America iOn cost.

However the real issues are a lack of a proper appeal process and the attitude of the officers.

You cannot have a car free Vancouver because of the number of people coming from the suburbs where transit is not a viable option and how about those who require a vehicle during their workday?

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Why should it be free? Even when I pay I still can't find a spot, imagine what free parking will do.

Improve public transit, have dedicated bus lanes, I don't mind having a car free Vancouver, we just need an alternative besides cycling. The transit system is very inconvenient, start with that first

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Put the bike lanes on Granville St bridge instead of Burrard; I've been saying that since the experiment started and congestion increased due to the reduced capacity coming out.

The bike lanes on Burrard can then become HOV/BOV, which drastically improves services on the 44 (UBC/Downtown), 258 (UBC/West Van), and many other trolley buses that connect downtown to Kerrisdale/Dunbar. Of course, the northbound lanes easily flow into the Burrard St HOV lane, which furthur reduce congestion.

But of course, for Gregor, he'd rather have the votes of thousands of cyclists than tens of thousands of bus passengers and high-occupancy commuters.

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