NYC Traffic Enforcement Agent | NY City Sights

If you’ve been texting while driving in NY State, stop right now. On November 1st, NY State became the 14th state to ban texting while driving. That includes reading, typing and/or sending text messages, and the fine is up to $150.

But there is are two twists to this ban that most of the other states don’t have:

– You can’t be pulled over for this violation, but you can get a ticket for texting if you’re stopped for something else. This means the ban is a secondary enforcement law.
– This law also makes new drivers take an additional 30 hours of supervised driving, and says that a new driver can have only one passenger under 21 in their car, instead of two passengers.

Is texting really all that bad? The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that a driver text messaging is 23 times more likely to get in a crash than a non-distracted driver. Check out what our friends at 888 Red Light have to say about the new law.

And a poll by The New York Times & CBS Ninety-seven percent found people supported the banning texting while driving, which is significantly high for any kind of poll. Eighty percent also support a ban on talking on a hand-held cellphone while driving. Half of the people surveyed felt the punishment for texting while driving should be just as severe as for drunken driving.

Read more about the NYT Poll and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute Study.

Our friend, Larry Berezin at New York Parking Ticket just told us about a new parking ticket scam.

Until December 2008, you could get a parking ticket if you parked in front of a pedestrian ramp located in the middle of the long street of a ‘T’ intersection, even if the ramp didn’t have an painted crosswalk or lights. The ticket was $165, which is a pretty expensive ticket.

Well, in December 2008 the Department of Transportation (DOT) realized that this ticket didn’t make any sense and changed the law. Now, you can park on the ‘major street’ of a ‘T’ intersection as long as there aren’t any traffic signals, painted crosswalks, or all-way stop signs.

But it seems traffic enforcement is still giving out those $165 tickets and people are paying them!

Check out Larry’s blog for more tips on avoiding and defending parking tickets.

Last week Mayor Bloomberg announced new initiatives to make street parking in NYC easier. His proposals include:

Installing Smart Parking Meters
Nicer Parking Enforcement Agents
Online Payments for Parking Fines
Reduced Alternate-Side-of-the-Street Parking Rgulations
Lower Penalties for Overdue Parking Fines

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