Parking Abuse Raises Concern of Officials

Dear Traffic Talk:

Over the past few years I have heard countless times that the city of Los Angeles loses money from the illegal use of metered parking spaces by cars with handicap plates.

Simple solution: Parking Enforcement should become more strict on enforcing the law.

One ticket would generate 12 times more revenue than a single quarter. Multiply that number by an endless amount of parking tickets enforcement could give. The results would equal income, not expense, for the city.

Michael Greitzer

Chatsworth

Dear Michael:

Many of the laws that govern the disabled are mandates that have trickled down from the state Legislature.

The state grants generous parking privileges to those with physical disabilities because legislators have decided that it is in the public interest to promote their full involvement in as many activities as possible enjoyed by the general population, said Michael Inouye, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation parking administrator.

However, like any resident, Inouye said he is also concerned about the abuse of the handicap parking privilege.

A recent study by the California Department of Motor Vehicles found that there was significant abuse of the handicap parking privilege by friends and relatives of disabled people, Inouye said.

Consequently, state law was amended to allow parking enforcement officers to ask for evidence of valid issuance from individuals suspected of misusing the placards.

The city presently enforces all parking laws, Inouye said. Officers issue about 3.1 million tickets a year. Also, in 1996, the city established a special Disabled Placard Abuse Unit.

From July 1996 to January 1997, the unit issued 772 citations for abuse and confiscated 459 placards, Inouye said.

He said the number of vehicles showing disabled placards at metered parking spaces decreased by 28% in the areas where the unit operated.

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Dear Traffic Talk:

It would be great if someone would check the corner of Killion Street and Zelzah Avenue. There are large potholes that may cause many problems for residents in the future.

This area has been repaired--if that’s what they want to call it--many times over the years. But instead of repaving the surface, the little tar or whatever they used has just filled the holes temporarily.

You can’t turn the corner from Killion onto Zelzah without the car hitting those holes.

Esther Adelson

Encino

Dear Esther:

Work on that section of Zelzah is scheduled for the near future, according to authorities.

The portion between Killion Street and Ventura Boulevard is currently included in the Bureau of Street Maintenance 1996-97 Resurfacing Program, said Richard Evans, a transportation engineer. He said work is scheduled to be completed in 90 days.

However, as with all streets on the resurfacing program, Zelzah must receive construction clearance by the utility companies maintaining structures in or beneath the street surface, according to Evans.

In the meantime, indeed, some interim asphalt repairs were completed in July.

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