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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  • 5oap10116@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    3 months ago

    How do those stand up to a Sawzall?. I used to cut galvanized steel pipes like butter. Assuming they’re not made of something significantly stronger, I figure I can fix that problem in under a minute on a fresh blade.

    • merde alors@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      19·
      3 months ago

      to whom do those boots belong and what are the consequences of damaging their property (that they surely know was clamped to your car)?

    • RubberElectrons@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      I forget where I’d read about it, some enterprising individual disassembled, then reassembled the boot off the vehicle, several times. Might be an urban legend though.

      • 5oap10116@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        3 months ago

        Also possibly urban legend, there was some story about a windshield suction cup “boot” or clamshell that you can get off by blasting your defroster on high heat and run a credit card along the seals. They also have GPS tracking on them with a Sim card that had unlimited data, which was then used for free internet.

  • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
    122·
    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?

    • DrunkEngineer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      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…

    • drkt@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      71·
      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.

  • ChronosTriggerWarning@lemmy.worldEnglish
    44·
    3 months ago

    Replace with spare tire: 10-15 minutes.

    Chopping “revenue generator” off with angle grinder: 10-15 minutes.

    Total costs: 20-30 minutes.

    • fpslem@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      19·
      3 months ago

      For anyone seriously considering this tactic, they already have your license plate and VIN when they boot your car. If you manage to remove the wheel and destroy the boot, many jurisdictions will come after you for damage to city property and it will cost you a lot more than paying to get the boot off. I had a buddy who found this out the hard way.