The District issued more than 2 million vehicle-related notices of infraction in 2014, collecting roughly $144 million in fines, penalties and fees as a result, according to a new city report.
Those numbers are down significantly from 2013, when D.C. collected $167 million in fines and fees off of about 200,000 more infraction notices.
Are drivers behaving better? It’s either that or less frequent enforcement, as the Metropolitan Police Department and D.C. Department of Transportation combined to issue 247,880 fewer notices in 2014 than the year before.
The annual breakdown of parking and moving vehicle infractions, and the revenue they generate, is prepared by the Department of Motor Vehicles. It was submitted to the D.C. Council on Tuesday.
All told, D.C. federal and related entities issued 2,147,355 notices on infractions to drivers in calendar year 2014. “Parking, standing, stopping and pedestrian infractions” accounted for 1.69 million of the total, followed by 369,535 photo infractions and 87,050 moving infractions.
The Department of Public Works, charged with parking enforcement, issued the most — 1,366,462, followed by the MPD with 484,794, DDOT with 248,248, the U.S. Park Police with 21,290, and the D.C. Taxi Commission with 9,769.
There was one violation issued by Fort McNair authorities, two by D.C. Superior Court Police, four by St. Elizabeths Hospital security guards, 34 by Amtrak and 70 by the U.S. Government Printing Office.
The total fines collected added up to $141.4 million. Towing fees added another $1.9 million, and booting fees an additional $611,545. The District towed 35,016 vehicles and booted 11,103 — an average of 30 per day.
The revenue accounts for slightly more than 2 percent of the District’s local funds for the current fiscal year.
The District currently operates just shy of 200 photo speed enforcement cameras, 48 red-light cameras, 32 stop sign cameras, 24 intersection speed cameras and eight oversize commercial vehicle cameras.
A few more interesting stats from the report, which you can read below.
- Of all the moving violations issued, 298,242 resulted in “admit” answers, and 71,061 denied liability.
- Of those that responded with a denial to a moving infraction notice, 34,034 were ultimately found liable. Infractions for the remaining 37,027 were dismissed. For future reference, those are good odds.
- 1.2 million parking, standing, stopping and pedestrian infractions resulted in “admit” answers, and 158,265 resulted in “deny.”
- Of the denials in that category, 81,199 were determined liable and 77,066 cases were dismissed. Those odds are not nearly as good.
- The average cost of each tow was $68.32, and the average cost of each booting was $88.19.
