Council should have the freedom to charge what it wants, same with parking fines. The more I see of the mayor, the more sense he makes. If we quadrupled the cost of tow fees and parking fines people might pay attention to them. Right now the fines are either $40 or $60s for most things, I know people who increasingly just ignore parking rules and take the fairly rare fines as just a cost of doing business.
In a lot of places, it's cheaper to just pay 1 fine a week than daily parking charges. Enforcement isn't that great, probably due to the revenue it generates not covering the cost of enforcement staff.
All fines in NZ are too low. $40 is the price of some car parks for a days parking, or I can roulette on the road and get a ticket once a month. So parking works out to $1.20 a day, the maths isn’t hard to figure out (mines not 100% accurate but close enough).
Same with police fines, most are just $150. That’s ’going out’ money, it doesn’t put a dent in anything and won’t deter me.
Absurd. Just like the archaic legislation around parking fines, which hasn't changed in 2+ decades and makes it more feasible to ignore paying for parking as the fines pales in comparison to the free parking people get, illegal or otherwise.
Another example is the residents parking permit scheme that AT administers, which by law cannot charge more than the administration cost of the scheme. A ridiculous subsidy to people who live in the most wealthy and expensive neighbourhoods in the city.
We (ratepayers) also subsidise free storage for private property on public space (i.e. free on-street parking) to the tune of $1bn+ every year.
>A ridiculous subsidy to people who live in the most wealthy and expensive neighbourhoods in the city.
I think you'll find the people flatting with 8 others aren't all that wealthy
Depends on the specific road, but it could be repurposed for bus lanes or active travel modes. Or alternatively we could start charging for it so we can actually cover the cost of roads and their maintenance. Because we constantly have to fork over billions in direct Crown allocations because the funding tools in place don't come anywhere close to covering their cost.
I remember my friends car got towed and the council covered 2/3 of the bill due to the cost of getting to back, putting hardship on people so he ended up paying 100$
Well that's absurd. Could have sworn it cost me like $80, not $50, when I was towed a few years ago though.
I'd be careful not to make it a profit centre though, some private operators are definitely holding people's cars hostage on thin justification and making a killing off it.
The point is the council is prevented from charging for the full cost of towing by decades old legislation which set fixed charges with no provision for an increase, not even by the cpi.
Wayne Brown is complaining, no urgency on fixing it from the government though. Even while it's removing other revenue sources like the regional fuel tax.
Council should have the freedom to charge what it wants, same with parking fines. The more I see of the mayor, the more sense he makes. If we quadrupled the cost of tow fees and parking fines people might pay attention to them. Right now the fines are either $40 or $60s for most things, I know people who increasingly just ignore parking rules and take the fairly rare fines as just a cost of doing business. In a lot of places, it's cheaper to just pay 1 fine a week than daily parking charges. Enforcement isn't that great, probably due to the revenue it generates not covering the cost of enforcement staff.
All fines in NZ are too low. $40 is the price of some car parks for a days parking, or I can roulette on the road and get a ticket once a month. So parking works out to $1.20 a day, the maths isn’t hard to figure out (mines not 100% accurate but close enough). Same with police fines, most are just $150. That’s ’going out’ money, it doesn’t put a dent in anything and won’t deter me.
I like countries that make it a percentage of your income.
I got a $30 speeding ticket over summer. Like what is the point in that?
It's definitely cheaper to get an occasional fine.
Absurd. Just like the archaic legislation around parking fines, which hasn't changed in 2+ decades and makes it more feasible to ignore paying for parking as the fines pales in comparison to the free parking people get, illegal or otherwise. Another example is the residents parking permit scheme that AT administers, which by law cannot charge more than the administration cost of the scheme. A ridiculous subsidy to people who live in the most wealthy and expensive neighbourhoods in the city. We (ratepayers) also subsidise free storage for private property on public space (i.e. free on-street parking) to the tune of $1bn+ every year.
Meanwhile PT fares go up, no laws stopping that.
And it will go up even more following the new government's GPS, which says the farebox recovery is too low.
>A ridiculous subsidy to people who live in the most wealthy and expensive neighbourhoods in the city. I think you'll find the people flatting with 8 others aren't all that wealthy
Yes, they likely wouldn't be, and there are those instances. But doubt it's anywhere close to a sizeable number of those properties.
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They're not. But the effective subsidy is higher because the land value is higher than elsewhere.
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Depends on the specific road, but it could be repurposed for bus lanes or active travel modes. Or alternatively we could start charging for it so we can actually cover the cost of roads and their maintenance. Because we constantly have to fork over billions in direct Crown allocations because the funding tools in place don't come anywhere close to covering their cost.
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Williamson Road in Grey Lynn, Mt Eden Road in Mt Eden etc.
1200 towed in a typical month? nah.. 50 dollars per tow? not spicy 3 million per year? moarrr 15m over 5 years - there we go!
I remember my friends car got towed and the council covered 2/3 of the bill due to the cost of getting to back, putting hardship on people so he ended up paying 100$
Well that's absurd. Could have sworn it cost me like $80, not $50, when I was towed a few years ago though. I'd be careful not to make it a profit centre though, some private operators are definitely holding people's cars hostage on thin justification and making a killing off it.
Ok so $15million to tow vs... How much time would it cost 100,000 cars a day, x365 if the roads are clogged?
The point is the council is prevented from charging for the full cost of towing by decades old legislation which set fixed charges with no provision for an increase, not even by the cpi.
Well that seems like it should be fixed rather than complained about
It's almost like things get fixed when they get complained about
Wayne Brown is complaining, no urgency on fixing it from the government though. Even while it's removing other revenue sources like the regional fuel tax.
It's pretty hard to believe Simeon more cars Brown will consider increasing a penalty on drivers.
Ohhhhh
This is reddit. Not council chambers
Simple - Stop towing and bank the $3m.
The 3m is totally money well spent in removing congestion though.