I live in Travis county so I'm kind of....

Might be some push back to the automated ticketing system in various locales. I would hope that the courts would back up the registered car owner.

Yawn..

If the county cannot determine who was driving the official vehicle, their record keeping is pretty lame. I say take the money from the county's executive manager for transportation's salary. He'll start keeping some better records mighty fast. And once the county drivers start having those fines taken out of their own paychecks, they'll stop acting like foreign UN diplomats in NYC.

Didn't the U.S. Army say the same thing to the same people about it's recruiting vehicles?

travis county just called me yesterday to let me know there's a warrant out for my arrest because i didn't show up to court regarding a speeding ticket. 200 bucks for doing 70 in a 60? fark them. but now i feel bad.

jejpu: If the county cannot determine who was driving the official vehicle, their record keeping is pretty lame.

I wouldn't say that. These are probably motor-pool vehicles for the water, sewer, road, parks, etc. offices. When you show up to work in the morning, the boss hands out a roster of tasks, and you take one of the vehicles appropriate to the job. Other than the fines and offenses in TFA, here's not a lot of point in keeping 6-month records of which road-kill disposal crew got which truck.

Side note - where are there toll roads in Austin? I've driven through there (but not in the last 5 years of so), and all I remember is a split-level Interstate running through the middle of town.

Boston?

oh just came, porn

FrancoFile: jejpu: If the county cannot determine who was driving the official vehicle, their record keeping is pretty lame.

I wouldn't say that. These are probably motor-pool vehicles for the water, sewer, road, parks, etc. offices. When you show up to work in the morning, the boss hands out a roster of tasks, and you take one of the vehicles appropriate to the job. Other than the fines and offenses in TFA, here's not a lot of point in keeping 6-month records of which road-kill disposal crew got which truck.

Side note - where are there toll roads in Austin? I've driven through there (but not in the last 5 years of so), and all I remember is a split-level Interstate running through the middle of town.

True, but how hard is it to have a sign in / sign out log on the dashboard? I used to have access to a pickup truck that was first-come, first-serve (as long as you gave them your license and had less than 2 moving violations in 3 years or something).

Sign in, note the mileage, note damage. Make sure your start mileage equals the end mileage above, if not, skip a line.

Sign out, note mileage.

Anyone misses marking mileage, fine 'em $10. Bonus: you can also track who was driving any time the car was damaged.

Hell, you don't even have to check the books, except when "who was in this car when another damn parking ticket was issued" comes up.

Of course, the obvious solution would be to to "check out" the keys to people and keep checkout/checkin logs, but the government never goes for the obvious solution... -.-

oh depression really kickin in now

dasunst3r: Of course, the obvious solution would be to to "check out" the keys to people and keep checkout/checkin logs, but the government never goes for the obvious solution... -.-

Of course the obvious solution is to stop using those farked up speed cameras in the first place. They cause more accidents than they prevent, and they hold the wrong person liable for the ticket.

StreetlightInTheGhetto: FrancoFile: jejpu: If the county cannot determine who was driving the official vehicle, their record keeping is pretty lame.

I wouldn't say that. These are probably motor-pool vehicles for the water, sewer, road, parks, etc. offices. When you show up to work in the morning, the boss hands out a roster of tasks, and you take one of the vehicles appropriate to the job. Other than the fines and offenses in TFA, here's not a lot of point in keeping 6-month records of which road-kill disposal crew got which truck.

Side note - where are there toll roads in Austin? I've driven through there (but not in the last 5 years of so), and all I remember is a split-level Interstate running through the middle of town.

True, but how hard is it to have a sign in / sign out log on the dashboard? I used to have access to a pickup truck that was first-come, first-serve (as long as you gave them your license and had less than 2 moving violations in 3 years or something).

Sign in, note the mileage, note damage. Make sure your start mileage equals the end mileage above, if not, skip a line.

Sign out, note mileage.

Anyone misses marking mileage, fine 'em $10. Bonus: you can also track who was driving any time the car was damaged.

Hell, you don't even have to check the books, except when "who was in this car when another damn parking ticket was issued" comes up.

No, that's not hard. But somebody has to print out the sheets, distribute them to the vehicles, collect them when full, index and file them, etc. And there are still going to be guys who don't fill them out, or do them the next day because they are in a hurry, or whatever. And a two- or three-man crew is going to fudge who the driver was if they want to.

Oh, good luck on the 'fine them $10 if they don't write down the mileage' idea: I'm sure the union is going to go along with that just fine.

They probably will have to implement something of this sort, now that the fines have become a big deal. But you can't be too hard on them for not having the foresight to deal with this before it became a problem.

StreetlightInTheGhetto: FrancoFile: jejpu: If the county cannot determine who was driving the official vehicle, their record keeping is pretty lame.

I wouldn't say that. These are probably motor-pool vehicles for the water, sewer, road, parks, etc. offices. When you show up to work in the morning, the boss hands out a roster of tasks, and you take one of the vehicles appropriate to the job. Other than the fines and offenses in TFA, here's not a lot of point in keeping 6-month records of which road-kill disposal crew got which truck.

Side note - where are there toll roads in Austin? I've driven through there (but not in the last 5 years of so), and all I remember is a split-level Interstate running through the middle of town.

True, but how hard is it to have a sign in / sign out log on the dashboard? I used to have access to a pickup truck that was first-come, first-serve (as long as you gave them your license and had less than 2 moving violations in 3 years or something).

Sign in, note the mileage, note damage. Make sure your start mileage equals the end mileage above, if not, skip a line.

Sign out, note mileage.

Anyone misses marking mileage, fine 'em $10. Bonus: you can also track who was driving any time the car was damaged.

Hell, you don't even have to check the books, except when "who was in this car when another damn parking ticket was issued" comes up.

And it's very easy to set up a spread sheet or some type of database for this so accessing the data would be quite easy if and when the information would be needed.

Heck, you can even use the Novell Groupwise calendar for something like this, or whatever calendar/email program the department uses. It's very basic stuff actually and nothing fancy or over complicated is really needed..

FrancoFile:Oh, good luck on the 'fine them $10 if they don't write down the mileage' idea: I'm sure the union is going to go along with that just fine.

Union? What union?

FrancoFile:

Side note - where are there toll roads in Austin? I've driven through there (but not in the last 5 years of so), and all I remember is a split-level Interstate running through the middle of town.

They are to the north. I never take them, but 45 and parts of 183 are now toll roads.

Clearly, I'm not the authority on it because I don't drive them everyday. Maybe some other northern Austinite can tell you exactly. I'm south. I don't deal with that shiat. It might as well be south Dallas to me. It's nothing but shopping centers and chain restaurants up there...

Toll beats taking 35 or 183 any day. Are they still planning on making parts of MoPac east of 35 toll as well?

FrancoFile: Side note - where are there toll roads in Austin? I've driven through there (but not in the last 5 years of so), and all I remember is a split-level Interstate running through the middle of town.

Austin Toll Road Map

When I was riding the Cap Metro bus the other day, the driver accidentally took the ramp onto Toll 45. At the tollbooth, the bus driver asked for directions, then had to get out his wallet to pay the toll. I guess the driver should've just told her to just bill it to Travis County and sped off.

Link to all toll roads, both active and planned, in and around the entire Hill Country, Texas.

I was following my friends to wurstfest last year and they decided to get on the tollroad. I didn't have a txtag so I got a bill in the mail. I think it was like $2 so I paid it.

The roads should be free...

I think they said they could figure out, but it would present an unduly large administrative burden - or some such.

Basically, it's too much work to figure all this stuff out...

FrancoFile:
Side note - where are there toll roads in Austin? I've driven through there (but not in the last 5 years of so), and all I remember is a split-level Interstate running through the middle of town.

There's one in far north that runs between Round Rock and Austin. It's about 2 years old and no one wanted it but they put it in anyway.

And no, it's not unfair. Only worse drivers than UT students are A&M students. It's not that hard to avoid a parking ticket in Austin; it's easier to get towed and owe $300. Tow truck drivers own that goddamn city.

The city was booting county vehicles? Now that's funny. I think camera based tickets and boots are both bullshiat but it's nice to hear they're being used against the government instead of citizens. Of course the citizens are paying either way but I'd like to see the look on a county employee's face when s/he comes out of the diner after lunch and finds a boot on the car.

I love how the city somehow thinks that having to identify the person actually driving the vehicle if they dont want to pay the fine themselves places an undue burden on them. These same douchebags would just tell a member of the public whose vehicle was ticketed while somebody else was drving it, "oh well,pay up."

Under civil procedures, the vehicle's registered owner is automatically responsible for paying once an accusation is made, regardless of individual guilt.

How the hell does this work out? I didnt realize tickets were civil procedures - I thought they went through criminal. Also, how would this work if the ticket went into warrant - who would be responsible?

sh*t.

who gives one?

When I was in the Navy we had to sign out all government vehicles and fill in a log that showed how long we had the vehicle checked out and how many miles we put on it. Every single time we drove it.

Also, I'm pretty sure there was a 'destination' box on the log.

There was no doubt who was in custody of the vehicle.

Is their no tracking of who drives county vehicles in Texas?

austinradiogod: FrancoFile:

Side note - where are there toll roads in Austin? I've driven through there (but not in the last 5 years of so), and all I remember is a split-level Interstate running through the middle of town.

They are to the north. I never take them, but 45 and parts of 183 are now toll roads.

Clearly, I'm not the authority on it because I don't drive them everyday. Maybe some other northern Austinite can tell you exactly. I'm south. I don't deal with that shiat. It might as well be south Dallas to me. It's nothing but shopping centers and chain restaurants up there...

Versus the tattooed, toothless, fat girls in rusted trucks and trailer homes in the South - oh, and don't forget the illegal alien colonies of St Elmo/Live Oak. South Austin is truly the place to be (just a hint of sarcasm).

It is good to see the North/South rivalry is alive and well in my hometown.

Do they still do the tug of war across Town Lake?

jasonmicron: FrancoFile:Oh, good luck on the 'fine them $10 if they don't write down the mileage' idea: I'm sure the union is going to go along with that just fine.

Union? What union?

Approximately 40% of state and local government employees are unionized.

Public-sector union membership rates are much higher than in the private sector.

Well, that certainly explains why after several years of parking my motorcycle next to buildings (instead of allowing a car to knock it over in a parking lot space,) I received a ticket yesterday in front of the Target at Capital Plaza. I've been parking up next to the building of several different businesses for years and never, NEVER, gotten a ticket. In fact I don't know of a single rider, either scooter or motorcycle, that has ever gotten a ticket for parking next to the building if they weren't blocking anything. If I find the jerk cop who was bored enough to write me that frakking ticket, I'll ask him if he's the @-hole who hit and knocked over my bike when I was stupid enough to park in a car parking spot. Or maybe he's the @-hole who, after knocking my bike over, wouldn't even write up a police report about it because it "wasn't a real accident because there were no witnesses". If the city can't get it's desired money from the county it's going try to get it from me apparently.

/still ticked about it
//happened yesterday
///never shopping there again

Got about 200 in unpaid parking tix myself to the city of Austin. A couple of years ago they "accidentally" sent out notice that anyone with unpaid parking tix would get arrested. They left it hanging out there a couple of days, then announced that it was in error. Riiiiigghhtt. Bet they got a whole lot of peeps to pay their parking tickets that way. But not me. Muhuhahahahaha.....

its texas. I don't think theres a union. we are a right to work state.. [i.e. right to fire for no given reason]

I hate the toll roads.
check out this site..

Truth be Tolled (new window)

I can imagine that it would easily cost more than $10,000 in administrative costs to figure out who caused the fine. Just figuring out which of the dozens of departments owns the car is going to require maintaining a database. Then once the ticket was sent to the correct department, somebody has to find the logs. And that requires people at every department to keep track of and enforce the logs.

FrancoFile: I wouldn't say that. These are probably motor-pool vehicles for the water, sewer, road, parks, etc. offices. When you show up to work in the morning, the boss hands out a roster of tasks, and you take one of the vehicles appropriate to the job. Other than the fines and offenses in TFA, here's not a lot of point in keeping 6-month records of which road-kill disposal crew got which truck.

Yeah, but they should be logging who took what vehicle that day. And I'm assuming the tickets have a date/time associated with them.

pooperator: austinradiogod: FrancoFile:

Side note - where are there toll roads in Austin? I've driven through there (but not in the last 5 years of so), and all I remember is a split-level Interstate running through the middle of town.

They are to the north. I never take them, but 45 and parts of 183 are now toll roads.

Clearly, I'm not the authority on it because I don't drive them everyday. Maybe some other northern Austinite can tell you exactly. I'm south. I don't deal with that shiat. It might as well be south Dallas to me. It's nothing but shopping centers and chain restaurants up there...

Versus the tattooed, toothless, fat girls in rusted trucks and trailer homes in the South - oh, and don't forget the illegal alien colonies of St Elmo/Live Oak. South Austin is truly the place to be (just a hint of sarcasm).

It is good to see the North/South rivalry is alive and well in my hometown.

Do they still do the tug of war across Town Lake?

No tug of war. And South Congress is now more expensive to live in than North Austin. No hookers or communes anymore. More like hair salons and antique shops. I prefer G&S Lounge to Dave and Busters.

:)