Posted by Larry Berezin on Sat, Jun 26, 2010 @ 10:41 AM
Why?
I am paraphrasing Seth Godin, an amazing marketer, thinker, and take action guy, who coined a phrase similar to the title of this article. What does a car and a fast horse have to do with a NYC parking ticket?
It's about progress. Once upon a time, a not so long time ago, New Yorkers traveled from place to place by sitting proudly on top of a horse, or in a horse drawn carriage. There was pride of ownership. I'm wondering which brand of horse and carriage was the most beloved; held the most status; got you there the fastest?
Is progress always good?
As time went by, we progress from horse and buggy to car and engine. We move from park your horse anywhere you want, to park your car at your own risk. We move from worrying about a horse thief to worrying about a parking ticket warrior and tow truck operator.
Parking ticket warriors started out writing NYC parking tickets by hand. New York Parking Ticket finds about a 10% mistake/dismissal rate with handwritten tickets. It was almost a fair fight.
Now, warriors are equipped with digital hand held parking ticket devices to scan your registration. These devices significantly cut down on the error rate, and increase speed and efficiency. These hand held devices make it possible to issue more tickets more accurately, in less amount of time. Wow, that's progress. But, is it good progress?
Why issue parking tickets, anyway?
That's easy. There would be parking chaos if members of the driving public were permitted to park their "horses" any where. The powers-to-be claim parking must be regulated,and parking rules strictly enforced to allow the gazillion or so drivers to use our highways, and byways in a safe and efficient way.
Now that's progress; or is it? Does progress really require 90 separate parking violation codes, a throng of DOT and DOF parking regulations contained in forty-four plus pages of City of New York Parking Rules, a swarm of NY State parking laws contained in the Vehicle and Traffic Laws, and a pinch of administrative code? I don't think so. What it's really about is revenue. Show NYC the money.
Where does educating the driving public in a way the driving public can really learn these arcane rules fit in? Why is blocking the box an out of control parking ticket feeding frenzy aimed at filling the treasure chest; rather than an opportunity to deploy warriors to direct traffic so our congested roadways flow freely during rush hour? Why did it take more than two (2) years for the warriors to be ordered not to write illegal parking tickets for pedestrian ramp violations? And, some rogue warriors are still issuing these illegal epistles.
Are we making good parking ticket progress? Or, should we take a fresh look at the present parking ticket chaos, and get back on our horses and search for a solution?
What do you think? Can you share examples of bad progress?
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