Nov 26, 2008 6:16 am US/Eastern
NYC On Ticket Blitz; 200 Traffic Agents Added
Better Be On Your Best Behavior With Your Car Because Cash-Strapped City Is Out To Raise $66 Million
Manhattan To Get 100 Agents; Staten Island Spared ... For Now
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
You may have begun to notice more traffic tickets being written. And you may have guessed -- correctly -- that it has to do with getting New York City more money. Well, brace yourselves, the city is putting 200 more ticket-writing traffic agents to work.
The city's latest move to close the budget gap is annoying New Yorkers to no end. Soon, you may not be able to avoid the police no matter what you do. Approximately 100 of the agents will be in Manhattan; the other 100 will be spread out across the other boroughs.
"You get stuck out there in the middle; not because you're not paying attention," driver Rob Frangavilla said. "People walk across; you're stuck there. I just think it's a crazy way to raise money."
"No more tickets, because they're so aggressive," driver Ephraim Kaufman said. "It's unbelievable. Like, you go to pay the ticket -- for machine -- but while you put in the money to buy the ticket they give you a ticket!"
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly laid out the plan on Tuesday.
"[We will put them] in Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. We will not deploy them right now in Staten Island," Kelly said.
The agents will be looking primarily for drivers who "block the box" at intersections. That ticket will cost $115.
However, Mary Jo Albanese thinks it's a good idea.
When asked if she'd be annoyed if the traffic agents came up to her and ticketed her instead of putting the notice n her car, Albanese said, "Well if I was doing the right thing, I wouldn't get a ticket."
The city thinks it can raise an extra $66 million this way.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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