"There's only one thing more irritating than having to interrupt your Brazilian jazz class to feed the meter. That's racing outside, keys in hand, only to find a parking officer writing a ticket. In two East Bay cities, that most frustrating of urban experiences may soon be obsolete. Berkeley and Oakland are both considering a true rarity: driver-friendly ordinances that would forbid parking officers from writing tickets if the driver is present. "We're trying to have a kinder, gentler parking policy," said Berkeley City Councilman Kriss Worthington, who proposed the Berkeley ordinance. "If you show up to move your car, that should be good enough. I don't think we should be punishing you for that." Berkeley's proposal originated with Frances Kalfus, a classical guitarist who takes Brazilian ensemble classes at the Jazz School in downtown Berkeley. Week after week, his teacher had to rush out of class to move his car. Three times in two months, he returned to class with a $45 ticket, issued as he stood helplessly by his vehicle. "He was so upset. It seemed to me like there ought to be a policy about this," Kalfus said. "These meter maids, they're everywhere. They're like mosquitoes." Kalfus wrote to every council member and the mayor pleading for help. Worthington crafted the legislation and the council is expected to take it up Feb. 14." - Anne Bouey from Bookmarklet

Wow, I'm surprised. They need the $ pretty badly. - Spidra Webster

"The policy will have little impact on revenue. The city collects about $1.5 million annually from parking tickets, a minimal factor in the city's overall $350 million budget." - Anne Bouey

Well, I'm glad they think 1.5M is minimal. It's not like South Berkeley needs any additional police presence due to perennial North Oakland/South Berkeley drugs wars...no sirree. - Spidra Webster

I wonder how much this would impact them financially, though. Maybe this will have a minimal impact. If they are only not writing tickets if the driver is standing right there at the right time (which to me seems like the driver is making a good faith effort to return in time and I think the policy trends towards kindness and understanding); I'm willing to bet that most drivers they ticket don't do that and just dump the car. So it could have a positive ripple effect of making people who are trying to get back to their car feel less ignored and angry while still ticketing/surcharging the people who are flagrantly violating the parking rules. Or it might further incentivise drivers get back to their cars in time if they think that being one or two minutes late won't have already determined their fate. - joey

I also wish that cities could find ways to get revenue that don't rely on people don't the 'wrong' thing in order for them to work. Seattle has the same problem; we just overhauled our parking system downtown to make more money and it feels like it's designed to get people to screw up so that they can be ticketed (in addition to doubling the price of street parking and lengthening the meter hours). If I get a ticket, I don't just fret about the money, I also feel guilt and frustration and a whole other host of emotions that translates, I'm sure, into how I interact with people around me for the rest of the day. If someone didn't implement this 'kindness policy' but just launched an education campaign or people got really good about following parking rules to the letter, the city would still be losing out on money. In my mind, it's not smart or sustainable to rely on 'bad' behaviour for funds (especially if the programme to collect the funds costs significant money to maintain so it isn't even bringing in revenue that can be used in other areas, which may or may not be the case but seems more likely with more complex systems). - joey

Joey, right -- cities have large incentives to entrap citizens into paying fines, and there's really little in terms of checks and balances. Corruption invariably ensues. - Stephen Mack