Politicians looking to punish parking sinners with wheel locks

Copenhagen missed out on almost 34 million kroner in parking fine income last year alone

Apr 7, 2016

The politicians at City Hall are eyeing drastic methods to tackle Copenhagen’s unpaid parking ticket problem.

Venstre and Konservative members of the citizenry representation, Borgerrepræsentationen, have proposed putting wheel locks on the vehicles that earn two tickets for the same offence.

“Not paying parking fines is mocking those drivers who park according to the law,” Jakob Næsager, the head of Konservative in Copenhagen, told Berlingske newspaper.

Millions outstanding
Currently, there are 66,553 unpaid parking tickets issued in 2015 in Copenhagen Municipality that have not yet been paid. Assuming the average parking fine is 510 kroner, the city missed out on almost 34 million kroner last year alone.

The city’s deputy mayor for technical issues, Morten Kabell, agreed there was a problem and suggested an even more drastic measure.

“A wheel lock doesn’t solve the issue here and now, as the parking space with still be occupied. I think we should discuss the option of the municipality removing the car from the parking spot so others can enjoy it.”

The Danish car owner organisation FDM, however, has rubbished the idea, arguing that mistaken drivers can potentially park where they believe a ticket isn’t permitted and get up to three fines for what is effectively just one offence. Instead, FDM has called for an optimisation of the current regulations.

Pull over John Deere!
In related news, FDM has urged the municipalities to establish more hard shoulders on the roads to alleviate traffic queues generated by slow agriculture vehicles like tractors.

“It should be possible for the driver of a farming vehicle to pull over, but there are areas where there isn’t a possibility to do so, so they can’t do anything but keep on going,” Torben Lund Kudsk, a spokesperson for FDM, told DR Nyheder.

However, one of the largest agricultural municipalities in Jutland, Vesthimmerland, has rejected the idea because it would cost too much to purchase the land by the roads to create the hard shoulders.