Over parking

Deal for deliverers not fine, city pol says

A city council member says the companies delivering New Yorkers’ Cyber Monday deals get too sweet a deal from the city on their parking tickets.

Councilman Costa Constantinides (D-Queens) on Monday stumped for a bill he introduced last year that would abolish the city’s Stipulated Fine Program, which lets delivery businesses pay a pre-set rate for their parking tickets in exchange for not challenging the fines in court.

The program saved New York’s 10 largest shipping companies more than $20 million in fines last year, according to a report from the city’s Independent Budget Office.

“For 15 years the city has charged these corporations as little as zero dollars for clogging up our streets by double parking, outrunning an expired meter or idling for too long,” Constantinides said at a City Hall press conference. “Our streets are being blocked by companies that clearly don’t have a regard for human life.”

Constantinides’ call to end the Stipulated Fine Program came on Cyber Monday, when stores offer big discounts for customers who shop online. Some analysts projected that Americans would spend a record $9.4 billion online on Cyber Monday this year.

Marco Conner, deputy director of street safety advocacy group Transportation

Alternatives, said the Stipulated Fine Program sends a message to big corporations like FedEx and UPS that the city’s streets can be bought.

“We need to incentive the safe operation of large vehicles and trucks on our streets,” said Conner. “We need to incentive companies to do the right thing and be stewards of our streets in a way that doesn’t harm people.”

Members of Mayor de Blasio’s administration have said abolishing the program is a bad idea.

City Department of Finance deputy commissioner Jeffrey Shear testified at a City Council hearing last April that the bill would cost the city money because it would lead to a big increase in the number of disputed parking tickets.