Drivers who don’t pay their tickets are more likely to find their vehicles immobilized.

Booting is on the rise in New York City.

Drivers who don’t pay up for traffic tickets are more likely to have their cars ensnared than they have been at any point since before the pandemic all but shut down enforcement, according to city data.

New Yorkers’ vehicles were immobilized 134,945 times in 2023. That’s more than quadruple the number of boots clamped onto wheels throughout the city in 2020, when only 31,379 vehicles were captured by the devices’ metal fangs.

Drivers who fail to pay $350 or more in parking or traffic camera tickets within 100 days of their issuance are subject to booting.

Many booted vehicles get towed away. If their owners don’t retrieve them, the city can sell them at auction.

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  • @[email protected]English
    10•3 months ago

    Isn’t the boot just going to make scarce city parking even less efficient? Isn’t it kind of shooting yourself in the boot to some degree?

    • @DrunkEngineerEnglish
      20•3 months ago

      NYC has never been interested in making parking efficient. The parking meter rates are ridiculously cheap, with many streets not charging anything for parking (or even having time limits). And yes, giving away valuable parking makes driving much more complicated – but apparently the Governor was in a diner and overheard some voters from NJ complaining about increased costs…

    • @[email protected]English
      6•3 months ago

      The alternative is that the 350 dollar fine becomes a cost-of-doing-business for those who can afford it unless the fine is changed to be income% based and the violators are ruthlessly hunted through the legal system. NYC definitely can ruthlessly hunt people legally, but I’m not sure it could do it competently. Booting and towing the violators seem a simple and cheap solution by comparison.