Starting January 2, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) will be increasing their fines for those violating parking rules.
The BART Board of Directors voted earlier this year to increase daily fee violations from $35 to $55. For those with permits, a permit violation is increasing from $40 to $75.
BART says that assuming that compliance does not improve, the new fines could increase citation revenue by 60%.
BART approved modifications that include:
- Increase the fine for permit parking, posted signs, and red zone violations from $40 to $75
- Increase the fine for daily fee parking violations from $35 to $55
- For the above violations, increase parking fines to $100 if a patron has had more than 5 citations for the same violation in a calendar year. For the above violations and for parking for more than 24 consecutive hours in areas not designated for long-term parking, increase parking fines to $150 if a patron has had more than 10 parking citations for the same violation in a calendar year.
- Establish a $150 fine for displaying a fraudulent or falsified permit.
According to the February 11, 2016 Staff Report:
BART currently has parking facilities at 33 of its 45 stations where the Board took up the issue of parking citations to encourage compliance with parking regulations and to deter inappropriate parking. The current fines, in place since 2008, are $35 for a daily fee parking violation, $40 for permit parking and posted sign violations and $100 for parking for more than 24-consecutive hours in areas not designated for long-term parking.
Most parking fees range from $3 to $6 and go as high as $11 at West Oakland for a single day reserved permit.
BART enforcement staff issued 61,410 parking citations in 2014 and 98,695 in 2015. Approximately 50% of these violations of these parking citations were written for permit related violations, 41% for failure to validate their parking in a daily fee space and 9% for all other parking violations. Approximately 87% of issued parking citations are paid with an approximate dismissal rate of 13%.
