City plans blitz of box block drivers

Those annoying drivers that bottle up traffic by “blocking the box” are now officially in the crosshairs of the city.
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly announced that the new crackdown on box blockers began Wednesday, September 10. Vehicles found blocking an intersection will be ticketed with new, easier to issue summonses, with fines of $115.
“More than 2,500 agents have new authority to write ‘blocking the box’ summonses. Combined with their efficient handheld devices, they will be better equipped to keep New York moving,” Commissioner Kelly explained.
Back In July, a new law went into effect which makes “Obstructing Traffic at an Intersection” a parking violation. Before that time it was strictly a moving violation; now it’s both.
Box blocking summonses, as moving violations, could only be issued by uniformed Police Officers and relatively few senior Traffic Enforcement Agents. They had to record license and registration information.
As anyone who’s ever gotten a moving violation knows, this is a time-consuming process. In the case of box blocking, on the rare occasion when a summons was issued, it often made congested traffic even worse.
Now, Traffic Enforcement Agents can quickly issue a $115 parking ticket, using their handheld Parking Ticket Device, or PTD, which can scan the vehicle information from the registration sticker in the window and print the ticket.
The devices can be pre-programmed with specific information relating to the agent’s duty assignment (like overtime parking, or now blocking the box) which virtually eliminates the possibility of them issuing a “defective summons” on account of a mistake.
As anyone who’s parked without paying “to duck into the store for a minute” knows, the tickets are produced virtually “at the touch of a button,” in a matter of seconds.
Police officers may still write the summonses as a moving violation.
During the crackdown, Traffic Enforcement Agents will be posted throughout the city at intersections with high density traffic, where there is a propensity to block the box, according to the announcement.
“Traffic Enforcement Agents will spearhead this initiative that was made possible by a recent change in the law,” Kelly said.
In 2007, a total of 13,995 moving violation summonses were written for “blocking the box,” mostly by police officers. During a one-day pilot program on Wednesday, September 3, Traffic Enforcement Agents issued 111 parking tickets for “blocking the box.”