Booting Up, Parking, Red Light Tickets Down
A booter affixes a late night boot on N. Ashland Ave.
It was just last November 1st, 2009 that the Chicago Department of Revenue began 24 hour booting.
Not surprisingly, in that almost year’s time, booting is up from last year based on numbers provided by the DOR during city council budget hearings today at City Hall.
Total boots placed through August, 2009 was 41,469, according to DOR documentation. DOR booters have increased booting by 7.5% this year with 44,581 boots placed through August 31, 2010
The city’s number one ward for booting comes as no surprise, and is the same as last year. The 41st ward, where booters found easy pickings in the O’Hare Airport parking lot with 1,587 cars booted through the end of August. The 23rd ward, where Midway Airport is located is number two again with 1,540 booted vehicles. The 2nd ward ranks third with 1,423, the 27th ward was number four with 1,408 and the 32nd ward was fifth with 1,293 boots.
Here are the top 10 wards for booting.
Rank Ward Boots
#1 41 1587
#2 23 1540
#3 2 1423
#4 27 1408
#5 32 1293
#6 37 1222
#7 6 1212
#8 5 1152
#9 20 1107
#10 28 1086
While booting is up, parking tickets and red light camera tickets are both down.
Red light camera tickets are down too, with revenues down $10.3 million through the end of August for the same time period last year or 5.8% less than the same time period last year.
But based on projections, total red light camera tickets could be down as much as 11% from 2009. Last year the city issued 789,329 RLC tickets with city numbers projecting only 705,688 red light tickets issued by year’s end.
Parking tickets issued through the end of August is just 1,659,407 compared to 1,879,071 for the same time frame last year which translates into almost a 12% decrease.
Several months ago, it was revealed that Chicago Police Department issued tickets were down due to a lack of police on the streets and perhaps bad will toward the administration after prolonged contract negotiations with the rank and file.
When it comes to parking tickets, the downtown based 42nd ward was the far and away ticketing champion with 182,673 tickets issued through the end of August. The 2nd ward, which also encompasses part of the downtown area was #2 with 107,222 tickets. The 44th ward which covers Lakeview and Wrigleyville was third with 74,985 tickets, followed by the 1st ward with 70,637 tickets and Lincoln Park’s 43rd ward in fifth with 69,839 tickets through August 31st.
Here’s the top 10 wards for ticketing in the city.
Rank Ward Tickets
#1 42 182,673
#2 2 107,222
#3 44 74,985
#4 1 70,637
#5 5 69,839
#6 32 59,750
#7 25 46,932
#8 27 43,899
#9 46 43,205
#10 47 35,078
Makes me wonder if the city didn’t recalibrate all of their yellows to exactly 3 seconds after that youtube vid last spring revealed 2.5 second yellows at the top grossing cameras. I’m sure Brian Steele will tell us that less infractions means it’s working, despite the increase in accidents (see Rajiv Sha’s report).
Scott, I shot that 11/2009 YouTube video and offered the raw video for analysis, but they turned down the opportunity. In April, 2010 I returned and re-shot the same intersections and found all the yellow intervals were at 3.00 seconds give or take 1/30 of a second. Just because the city says the yellows conform doesn’t make it so. The Feds say they must use an industry formula (ITE) which they don’t do. If CDOT timed the lights safely the yellows would be increased. The current 3 second timing is dangerous because it does not include factors for weather, trucks/buses and perception/reaction time.
But, Red Light Cam tickets are down so that makes me think the city lengthened the yellows to 3 sec across the board after that video went viral. I know when I dropped fliers in my ward calling for longer yellows and longer all red intervals, one high pedestrian traffic intersection along Addison suddenly had a 2 second all red.
When people ask me if activism works, I’m going to start using these examples as proof that is does.
I see several wards that are heavily covered by Me.
As for Ward 42 and 2….Not surprised that they made the top of the list when you consider that it is heavily patrolled by TMA’s and CPD 16 hours a day. And only 2 PEA’s a day.
I want to see the number of Dismissed tickets from CPD and TMA for those wards. Cause we see the number of Dismissed Tickets from PEA’s monthly.
Scott, the city still selelctively changes the traffic signals and can automatically program their changes randomly from a central control so the changes of being exposed are getting tougher. The city still thinks 3 sec. yellows for 30 MPH streets are legal. It’s not anymore. changes in the 2009 MUTCD require engineering studies to be used and the 85% average traffic flow speed be used as a reference speed, not the posted speed. This means the prevailing free-flowing traffic flow measured on a straight road in good weather shall be measured as a reference by which to time/program the traffic signal change intervals including yellows and all-reds.
Hey, here is an idea. Next time you see one of those booting vans, try to position your car in front of it–then try to engineer a situation where you must slam on the breaks and have those bozos rear-end you! After you develop neck pain, ptsd and anything else you can come up with, be sure to file a big lawsuit against the city and the booting crew!
DOR does NOT boot at airport parking lots, that is done by Standard Parking Systems. FYI
J-Man, your a moron!
J-man…..did you forget there are cameras on the Boot Trucks?
Go for it. I bet after you get out of Jail…you lose the lawsuit.
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