Pedestrians paid £35 bounty to report pavement parking

New Yorkers frustrated by the inconvenience and danger caused by pavement parking will be paid the equivalent of £35 every time they successfully report pavement parking or an obstructed cycle lane under plans being drawn up by the city's council.

Anyone who reports a driver will receive a bounty of 25 per cent of the $175 fine for pavement parking.

Council member Lincoln Restler believes the bill is necessary because the New York Police Department has reduced its enforcement of parking parking offences by almost 50% since lockdown.

“I feel the safety risks every day that are associated with illegal parking,” Restler told Bloomberg when asked about his proposals.

Together we can help reduce road danger

Now that every man, woman and child seems to have their own smartphone, why don't we help prosecute dangerous drivers by paying a bounty to those who catch them in the act?

After all, our police is overstretched and crimes such as driving while using a mobile phone have become endemic. The law on mobile phone offences was tightened earlier this year to close loopholes, but detection of the crime remains a challenge. It's one of the reasons one police force is trialling cameras that detect drivers using phones at the wheel.

If we paid a bounty to anyone who provided phone footage of a driver using a phone illegally it's hard to imagine it not having a positive effect on offending rates. It's a model that's already seeing results in America.

In a bid to reduce dangerous pollution, New York already has a Citizens Air Complaint Program that pays people to report lorries that are parked and idling for more than three minutes, or one minute if outside a school.

Those who successfully report a lorry in this way receive 25 per cent of any fine - typically $87, which works out at about £66. The city received more than 12,000 submissions last year, with one man claiming to have netted over $64,000 in rewards.

Cleaner and safer roads benefit everyone, however they travel. Are you for or against the idea of paying a bounty to those who report law-breaking motorists?

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