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I do agree that the entire removal of cars for parking violations should be reexamined, but having two tiers of punishment/fines depending on one's income is, imo, not practicable. As others have said, who or what is going to determine who can afford having a car towed and who can't? And if you throw out one public violation law, why not throw them all out? (And, yes, I can see many people thinking that might be a good idea, but I personally would not want to live in such a place.)
I am honestly just flabbergasted at all the pandering to the poor that seems to be taking place these days, and especially (it seems) in California.
Your post is somewhat confusing. If you are talking about the bill that would no longer allow towing cars that are parked in an unrestricted zone for more than 72 hours , or tow cars with unpaid parking citations - that is not a two tier system, it would impact all vehicles no matter how wealthy or poor the owner is. But there is clearly a disparate impact. If Mark Zuckerberg parks in an unmarked residential parking spot for more than 72 hours and his car is towed he would give someone on his staff a credit card and tell them to go fetch the car. If an hourly worker has their car towed they will likely lose their car or they will have to go borrow $500-$700 to get it out of impound from a payday loan shyster and have to repay it at 300% interest.
If you are talking about tying traffic fines to income then you need to relax, that is law in some European and Scandinavian Countries because they decided that if the real purpose of monetary sanctions for traffic violations is deterrence then the punishment has to be such that it will neither bankrupt the poor or be considered a rounding error by the wealthy. As far as I know it has not been used anywhere in the US, so don't get your knickers in a bunch over it.
Next time you drive down a street with a lot of homeless people maybe you should consider that just maybe some of them wouldn't be homeless if their car hadn't been towed for unpaid parking tickets and reflect on how that law made all of our lives better by adding more homeless people to the population
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The bill would prohibit tows wherein the owner has received five or more outstanding parking tickets, were unregistered for more than six months or if the vehicle had violated the 72-hour parking restriction.>>
So, how do you get the unregistered (which are uninsured) vehicles off the road?
The bill is full of "low income" "cars as shelter" and other phrases describing the poor and homeless.
And just for good measure they also threw in "people of color".
That's because those are the groups who are disparately impacted by the current law. If I park my car in front of my own house for more than 72 hours it is a violation and my car can be towed, even if it's legally parked and licensed and there are no unpaid tickets. The only law I broke was by not moving my car in 3 days, could that happen to me? heck yeah... there are plenty of times when I don't drive my car for four or five days, I'm retired and I can walk to stores, or I can use my husband's car. If my car was towed, I would pay around $150 to the Police Dept, show them my license and insurance and get my release. Then I would Uber to the tow yard and pay them the $500-$800 towing and impound fee. I'd be plenty mad at whoever the A** in my neighborhood was who called and had my car towed, but financially it wouldn't have a significant impact.
But for an hourly worker, or a retired or disabled person solely relying on SS or a small pension, not moving their own legally registered car from the front of their home for 3 days could be a deal breaker...they would likely have to borrow the money and figure out some way to get to the places they need to go, like Doctors appts, or taking the kids to and from school until they can get the money together to get the car back. And remember the cost to get that car back goes up by about $60 a day for as long as it takes the vehicle owner get the money together to get it released
So by their very nature these kinds of laws have a disparate impact on the poor, the disabled, the homeless, and yes people of color because a far higher number of them are poor than are white people in California. I'm really sorry if it offends you that they called a spade a spade in the wording of the law but so be it.
Quote:
The bill would prohibit tows wherein the owner has received five or more outstanding parking tickets, were unregistered for more than six months or if the vehicle had violated the 72-hour parking restriction.>>
So, how do you get the unregistered (which are uninsured) vehicles off the road?
I'm not sure what you mean, but this is from the legislative analysis of the bill
Quote:
Cars will still be allowed to be towed for the following: obstructing traffic, being reported as stolen, blocking a driveway, blocking a fire hydrant, lacking a license plate, parking in a spot where notice was given for cleaning, repair or construction purposes; in spots where all vehicles are prohibited from parking, when a vehicle is parked for more than 24 hours on a portion of the highway located within the boundaries of a common interested development, for parking at a rest area for more than 8 hours, when a mobile billboard advertising is displayed, or operating an autonomous vehicle without a permit. In addition, cities will still be able to tow a vehicle that is considered abandoned, wrecked, dismantled or inoperative
Why do you say that? It's an automatic $160 fine here. If you choose to pay for traffic school, add a few more hundreds.
My point was -- Traffic school is not a requirement for a first offense but the friend could be forced to go and pay more for the school. Although if there was a choice to voluntarily go then you can't complain about the cost to attend. (And if going means there wouldn't be any points on your record and insurance doesn't go up, the amount will eventually be a wash)
If a car owner cannot afford to keep the registration/tags up date, cannot afford to get their vehicle out of hock then they cannot afford to have a car - plain and simple. Occam's razor
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