Transportation

Gary Frisch isn’t exactly an outlaw, but he doesn’t want the New York City Department of Finance reading this.

In October 2008, as the 43-year-old South Shore, N.J. resident participated in the Breast Cancer Awareness Walk in Central Park, he was slapped with a $120 parking ticket for blocking a bus zone. Frisch still hasn’t paid the fine – nor does he intend to.

“I was there for a good cause,” said Frisch, a public relations consultant. “If I can get away with not paying, I will. I don’t think they can put a lien on my house or anything.”

Ticket Toll: 30,000 a Day

Parking has long been a problem in the city, where some 30,000 tickets are given out each day. Now Mayor Bloomberg, who made his name as an efficient manager in the business world, wants to create an amnesty program to encourage drivers with outstanding tickets to pay up – to the tune of $700 million.

Other amnesty efforts report success. The town of Brookhaven on Long Island launched an amnesty program in February to close a budget gap of $1 million. So did Albany and Chicago, which raised $7 million dollars in just 10 weeks, after launching an amnesty last December that gave drivers a 50 percent discount on late tickets.

“We consider the campaign to have been a success,” said Ed Walsh, a Chicago Department of Finance spokesman. “Web payments went up 240 percent during the amnesty and a total of 135,000 tickets were paid, significantly higher than was usual for that time frame.”

Funds Needed

In San Francisco, violators who can’t afford to pay their parking tickets can enroll in Project 20, where they work off their fines at community organizations.

In New York, $700 million worth of parking tickets remain unpaid, according to the city Comptroller’s Office. The money that could pay for 7,000 new police officers, says the mayor, or for some social service programs that have been cut in the past year because of budget woes.

Lawrence Berezin, CEO of New York Parking Tickets, a company that helps individuals and companies resolve outstanding tickets, backs an amnesty program.

“It’s a no-brainer,” Berezin said. “Nothing is working so far. Let people stop forward and do the right thing.”

Reluctance to Pay

The number of parking citations has grown in recent years, from 9.5 million in 2005 to 10.6 million this year, according to the city Department of Finance. Even as more tickets are being handed out, less violators are paying them. The implications for violators can be severe – a bench warrant could be issued.

And amnesty or no amnesty, the decision whether to pay often comes down to more than money. When Frisch, received a warning notice in the mail a few months ago, he didn’t even bother opening it. He just ripped up the envelope.

Will he pay if his late fees are forgiven?

“Not a chance,” Frisch said.

Imagine paying a parking meter with a credit card, getting a text message before the time runs out and then re-feeding the meter remotely from a cell phone.

The technology already exists – and Mayor Bloomberg wants New York to become the next city to get it.

“What’s interesting to me is that parking has been a neglected place with regard to technology,” said Ted Russ, chief operating officer of Street Smart Technology, an Atlanta-based wireless tech company that makes so-called smart meters. “Over the next five to 10 years, you’ll see an absolute transformation in how cities manage parking.”

Mobile Monitor

Russ’ computer wizards have designed a system that detects empty spaces – so instead of circling the block, drivers can simply consult their mobile phone.

The vehicle-detection technology, a sensor the size of a hockey puck, is installed into the street or adjacent lampposts. Information is transferred using a low-data-rate wireless network, which monitors the space’s availability and tracks payments.

Russ understands that the parking revolution he and others envision will take time. “As good of an idea as this is, and as obvious as it is…cities move very slowly,” he said.

So far, his company’s parking product is being tested in Atlanta, Houston, Reading, Penn., Pacific Grove, Ca., and Decatur, Ga. Russ said he’d love to tap into the New York market: “We are totally in sync with the mayor’s vision and would love an opportunity to make it possible.”

Big Demand

Wiley Norvell, spokesman for the New York-based Transportation Alternatives, said the city should take advantage of the latest technology to make traffic flow better, cutting congestion.

“Essentially, parking supply and demand do not match up, they don’t even come close,” Norvell said, noting that the last big innovation in parking technology – introduction of the first Muni Meters a decade ago – opened more parking spaces in city streets.

Lyn Meene, assistant city manager of Decatur, said the Smart Meter experiment initially suffered from wireless connection problems that subsequently were resolved. The city is monitoring 54 spaces in Decatur’s busiest districts.

“Like any new technology, we’re still looking to see if this is really what we want to stick with or if there’s something else on the horizon,” she said.

In an op-ed piece written for the New York Daily News in September, Bloomberg acknowledged how difficult parking in the city is and promised technological advances to ease the pain were on the way.

City Hall said the project was still in the early stages.

The Muni Meters already are accepting credit cards and NYC parking cards, a prepaid card that can be used in multi-space Muni Meters and some retro-fitted single-space meters.

But potential parking improvements also are coming from efforts outside the city. The iPhone application, Primo Spot, uses Google maps and parking signs to help drivers find spaces on the street and in garages. The $1.99 app also pinpoints bike racks.

A Popular App

“The whole reason we made this project was because this wasn’t a priority,” said the Primo Spot’s creator, Mike Hill. “We think it’s a really good initiative. It makes us really excited that city hall is making this a priority.”

Primo Spot, which boasts about 5,000 customers, displays cover 60 percent to 75 percent of the city’s parking spots. Hill isn’t worried about competition from the city.

“I think if anything, it legitimizes our idea and shows there’s a demand for it,” he said. “We think it’s a good thing.”

Debora Alvo was getting on an uptown 3 train at the 72 Street station when suddenly the subway doors closed on the stroller holding her 3-year-old daughter, Carly.

A man standing inside the train car helped Alvo force the doors open. Alvo, 44, said the only reason Carly wasn’t injured was because the girl’s hands were inside the stroller at the time.

“Oh my God, it freaked me out,” Alvo said of the January incident. “I actually didn’t take the subway for a long time. My daughter was terrified. Finally, I assured her that we would try it one more time and if it was scary we wouldn’t do it again.”

Danger Lurks

For many parents, the subway is the best way to get around the city. But traveling on the train with children can be dangerous. That’s why the Transit Authority has a longstanding advertising campaign urging parents fold strollers and carry them – and their tots – on the train.

“That is not feasible because you have to juggle carrying the baby in one arm,” said Alvo, who lives on the Upper West Side. “The stroller in the other, and then if anything happens, you don’t even have a free arm to push your way into anywhere.”

The Transit Authority eliminated a stroller ban in 1990 amid protests from parents and women’s rights organizations. Within two years of the ban being lifted, 27 children had been hurt in the subway, according to news reports. At the time, the agency said most of the stroller accidents occurred on escalators or stairways, where children were bounced off their seats. But in other cases, children in strollers were caught in subway doors.

A.J. Pierce remembers when a wheel of his two-year-old son’s stroller got caught in between the closed doors of a No. 2 as they rushed to get the train. His son, Damien, was not hurt. Pierce, 21, said it’s happened two more times since.

“I am not trying to run into a train door like that anymore,” said Pierce, who lives in East New York. “I will just let the train go.”

All subway cars have sensitive edges that would stop the train from moving if anything gets stuck between the doors and prevent anyone from being dragged, said Charles Seaton, a Transit Authority spokesman.

“The conductor is in charge of closing the doors and he has all the view of the doors,” Seaton said. “But don’t blame this all on the conductor. Is the people who shouldn’t put the strollers into the closing doors.”

Mind the Gap

The Transit Authority’s website also urges parents to watch out for the gap between the platforms edge and train. The Authority also suggests boarding with strollers near the conductor’s car because it makes it easier to get attention in case of a problem.

That’s advice Pierce takes. He said most of the conductors leave the doors open until he gets in. Still, there have been exceptions.

“If I feel it was my fault the doors closed on me,” Pierce said, “I wouldn’t report it. But if he sees me and he still closed the doors, I will.”

In September 2008, two transit workers were awarded with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s heroism medal for saving a baby girl in a stroller who tumbled from a subway platform to the tracks as an L train was approaching the Atlantic Avenue station in Brooklyn. The workers jumped to the tracks and walked toward the approaching train, waving their arms to alert the motorman about 300 feet away.

The stroller could have rolled onto the tracks because platforms tilt toward the tracks to allow for drainage, officials said at the time. The Transit Authority said parents should keep strollers away from the edge and apply the brake.

Unlike walking through subway cars, none of the agency’s safety tips are mandatory rules. Parents can’t be fined for pushing an open stroller on the subways.

“It’s just a safety precaution,” said James Anyansi, a Transit Authority spokesman.

Enforcement Issue

Karyl Cafiero, a staff member of the New York City Transit Riders Council (NYCTRC), a citizens advisory group, said until traveling on the subway with an open stroller is made a violation, parents and police would continue to ignore the safety recommendations.

“The police don’t want to go up to some woman who has a four-year-old and pushing a stroller,” Cafiero said. “What is he going to say to her? You have to fold your stroller up? If they are not getting any incentives, if there is no code of enforcement, then they are not going to touch it.”

Alvo doesn’t believe parents should be fined for having an open stroller in the subway. She said one solution is for conductors to keep the doors opened a couple of seconds longer.

“Any other city in the world you get to walk around like a human being,” Alvo said, “except in New York City, where you have to race like a rat.”

The L Train runs from 8th Avenue at 14th Street in Manhattan  to Canarsie, Brooklyn, serving more a quarter million riders daily. Now, thanks to CBTC, or computer-based train control system, some L trains are driving themselves.

Officials say the change will allow trains to run closer together and more often, helping New Yorkers get around faster. Some things, though, won’t change: the trains will still have a motorman and conductor.