No thanks on free pass: Forgiving downtown parking tickets is irresponsible

The Chapel Hill Town Council made a poor decision by adopting a resolution that would allow every person one free parking violation per year.

Allowing people to violate parking rules has no discernible benefit and only stands to hurt the city.

According to the resolution" adopting this measure is ""for the good of economic development in downtown.""

It is hard to see how allowing people to break parking rules will help the downtown economy in any significant way.

And allowing people a free parking violation carries the risk that drivers will abuse the new policy.

People could blatantly violate parking regulations when they know that there is no penalty for the first infraction. If anything" the number of violations is likely to go up because this program now encourages people to break the law.

However" some of the adopted recommendations might actually help to make parking easier and are relatively low-cost.

Among these are investing in better signage to direct drivers to parking and renaming parking decks to reflect their location so that drivers can find them more easily.

But allowing drivers to park illegally once a year is not a responsible measure.

The text of the recommendation asks the town to try the program for one year ""to see if it helps with understanding and perception of parking.""

The only perception of parking that this program encourages is that it's acceptable to break the rules.

Moreover" Chapel Hill needs every penny that it can save right now. The current economic crisis is leaving the town desperate for funds.

By allowing one free violation the city is forgoing over $12000 in parking ticket revenue.

It is troubling in these times to see the Town Council so easily forgo valuable dollars on wasteful and irresponsible programs.