Let App WinIt fight your ticket.
The city of New York is known for being the parking ticket capital of the United States and part of that is thanks to New York City Rule §4-08(f)(6): safety zones. If you’ve received a safety zone ticket in New York City, there are a few things that you should know before you drive yourself down to the Transportation Violations Bureau (TVB) to pay that hefty fine.
What Is a Safety Zone?
Section 141 of New York State’s Vehicle and Traffic Law (VAT) defines a safety zone as follows: “The area or space officially set apart within a roadway for the exclusive use of pedestrians and which is protected or is so marked or indicated by adequate signs as to be plainly visible at all times while set apart as a safety zone” (VAT §141).
Remove all the legalese from that 44-word sentence and you’re left with this easier-to-understand definition: A safety zone is part of a roadway that only pedestrians can use. These zones are marked with one long white line and several other diagonal lines connecting it to the sidewalk.
What Is the Purpose of Safety Zones
The purpose of a safety zone is right there in the name: safety. More specifically, safety zones are designed to ensure the safety of pedestrians in areas that are typically quite crowded, such as major storefronts and business districts in downtown Manhattan.
Hundreds of pedestrians die in car accidents in the city each year, which has led many lawmakers to increase the protections available to pedestrians in the hope of reducing that number.
Penalty for Parking in a Safety Zone
The most common penalty for parking in a safety zone is a fine of around $115. However, you might also have to pay additional surcharges, fees, or other penalties, depending on the nature of your conviction.
On the bright side, safety zone violations are typically considered parking violations, which are non-moving violations. Non-moving violations will rarely, if ever, impact your insurance premiums and this particular violation will not result in any points being added to your driver license.
However, it’s still advisable to avoid parking in any safety zones, as parking ticket fines can quickly add up. In many cases, in fact, the fine for these violations can be significantly more than the cost of hiring a lawyer to contest them in court.
Can You Drive in a Safety Zone
No.
Safety zones are similar to no-standing zones with the key difference being that they are not actually traffic lanes at all. Rather, they are parts of the road that have been set aside for pedestrians. To drive in a safety zone is to open yourself up to a ticket for driving in the wrong lane (though the actual violation with which you are charged will depend on the nature of your actions).
You are permitted to temporarily stop in a safety zone to drop off or pick up a passenger or goods, but you must leave the area immediately after doing so. A general rule of thumb is that you should not pull into a safety zone if it would take you more than 15 seconds to get back on the road.
