Minister of Infrastructure Arden McLean would like to see fines for illegal parking increase substantially.
Police are cracking down on illegal parking around the George Town area. This unlucky motorist found out the hard way when he was issued a ticket by Constable Miguel McFarlane for parking in a left hand turning lane on Fort Street. Photo: Jewel Levy |
‘I think [the current fines] are woefully inadequate,’ he said at the cabinet press briefing on Friday. ‘I think it’s time we start putting them up.’
Mr. McLean suggested fines for illegal parking should go up to as high as $200 from the current $20 to $25.
‘At $25, you’ll pay that four or five times a year, but at $200, you won’t want to pay that four or five times a year.’
Mr. McLean noted that the Traffic Law with regard to parking fines had not been amended in a long time.
‘It really needs to be revisited,’ he said, noting that the clamping fee for unauthorised parking on private property is usually $75.
The disparity between the fines for parking illegally on public roads and for unauthorised parking on private property is causing people to choose to illegally park on public roads.
‘[The disparity] encourages you to park on the yellow line and to park on the sidewalks,’ he said.
Mr. McLean announced last month that he was recommending to cabinet a series of tougher traffic laws and regulations.
Some of the measures are partially in response to the increased number of road fatalities in the Cayman Islands over the past 15 months.
Among the recommendations are substantial increases for offences like speeding and the implementation of a point system whereby people could lose their driver’s licence for too many offences.
Mr. McLean hopes the measures will be passed into law sometime this year.
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