U. Police to enforce ticket fines on campus

Students who receive parking tickets from University Police next semester may want to actually consider paying them. In the past, students who did not pay their traffic fines faced no penalties. Since police were only able to issue internal University tickets and the University did not enforce them, fines were paid on an honors system. But starting next semester, University Police will be able to issue Philadelphia traffic tickets. These fines will be owed to the city and will be enforced by Philadelphia traffic court. University Police Captain John Richardson said if police issue six or more tickets to an individual vehicle, its wheel will be locked so that the car is stationary. "Hopefully we're going to get a handle on all the illegal parking that takes place on campus," Richardson said. "The old tickets really have no teeth and don't take a big bite out of our illegal parking problem." Richardson said police decided to change to city parking tickets because students and faculty ignore about 90 percent of the tickets they now issue. The new ticketing procedure is the first in a two-step effort to curb traffic problems on and around campus. Richardson said police are waiting for approval from the state to start issuing tickets for moving violations also. This approval would not only give police control over motor traffic, but over bicyclists as well. Fines for the new tickets will be $15 for most violations, $30 for parking in front of a fire hydrant and $100 for parking in a marked handicapped zone. Fines must be paid within eight days or offenders will be assessed an extra $23 fine. Richardson said he hopes the new system will cut down on people "hogging" spaces and cut down on double-parking, which makes driving dangerous.

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