2001connections-article0028 Abolish tickets for leaving car doors unlocked.

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2001connections-article0028
Abolish tickets for leaving car doors unlocked.

And for other trivial vehicular infractions, many of which are truly little more than insurance risks. From a common sense point of view, this area of risk management ought to be regarded strictly as a private concern between the citizen and his or her insurance company. A non-official event. Let the insurance company raise the individual’s premiums, if they are entitled to do so. But there is no reasonable justification for permitting the public system to get involved, the way it seems intent on insinuating itself into many such and similar situations. Issuing tickets, fines, demerit points, what have you. Maybe even compulsory courses on safe driving, who knows. And possibly also a series of lectures about safe parking, safe door locking and what else?!?! And all at the expense and inconvenience of the private citizen. Enough already!! How invasive can the system become? And the audacity of enacting a set of regulations named along the lines of Driving Safety Code, Highway Safety Code or similar, depending on which jurisdiction you reside in. Here’s my point: emphasize the term “Driving”, not “Parking”. And “Safety” seems to be absent, for the most part. Insurance risk, sure, it exists here. But “Safety”? Or at least rename the book of rules to something less deceiving, like Driving And Parking Safety And Insurance Risk Management Code, or some kind of comparable title.
    The situation might be looked upon in a different light, for example, if you had left a minor in the vehicle with doors unlocked. But if there are no occupants, just an empty car + contents, then you probably are not doing any harm to anyone except yourself and/or your passengers, if they happened to leave some baggage in your vehicle. But it should be all right if they knowingly accepted the risk of leaving your car doors unlocked. Conceivably also affecting your insurer, in the form of risking property loss, property damage. At worst, if insurance rates go up for other drivers as well, too bad. It should still remain a non-official affair, without involving the public structure and its annoying array of fines and penalties.

What next? Fines for leaving your house doors unlocked? A ticketer will approach your house, rattle the door knob, and if the door opens this way from the outside, you just earned a ticket. And maybe even compulsory courses on safe housekeeping?!?! And once more, all at the expense and inconvenience of the private citizen. Not to mention the scare of a stranger opening your house door!! It could be a burglar, for all you know!! Or will these house ticketers be uniformed, to ease your fear? Who knows?
    Enough already!! Citizens need to contest unfair, excessive and superfluous tickets. Otherwise, this troubling trend will spread further, like a malignant growth. Notice that various attempts at modifying, improving citizens’ conduct consist usually of punitive measures such as tickets, fines, demerit points. Rarely is there a corresponding scale of rewards for good, perhaps exemplary conduct. How about some reward points + cash for locking all your car doors and stashing all your valuables out of sight, in the trunk? And a special bonus for parking in a well-lit area, which you are not necessarily obliged to do. It’s not likely to happen. The system seems much more inclined to take money from you, with or without a truly good reason, and woefully reluctant to give you payment on any basis, even if you ought to merit some kind of monetary and/or other reward. Establishing a civilian oversight agency would be a big positive step towards addressing this injustice.

Generally speaking, stronger deterrents may be needed against ticketers acting in bad faith. Too many fining structures are plagued by a systematic lack of transparency and accountability. Imposing penalties for various parking and parking-related incidents appears to be particularly problematic. These organizations need to become better answerable to the public. Safeguards must be established, to dissuade ticketers from becoming little more than overzealous cashiers for the public treasury. Enriching administrative coffers is usually one of the reasons for the existence and activity of any scheme of monetary penalties. Regrettably, such enrichment sometimes seems to be the primary motive, instead of just secondary. And truly protecting the public interest descends to a marginal role, at best.
    Yes, establishing a civilian oversight agency for every single ticketing apparatus in existence would indeed be a good start towards solving these problems.

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2001connections-article0028
Abolish tickets for leaving car doors unlocked.

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