NYC Returns to Towing and Booting Cars after Two-Year Break over the Pandemic

By Yehudit Garmaise

Although New Yorkers with parking and traffic tickets were given passes in the past two years after the “state of emergency,” caused by the pandemic, now NYC’s Finance Department is making up for lost time by booting and towing vehicles that have racked up unpaid tickets, the New York Post reported.

NYC Drivers with unpaid parking tickets were warned back in March, when the city sent out notices that it was ready to begin collecting the fines due from unpaid tickets that have been issued since the start of the pandemic.

Collecting those fines has generated more than $80 million in revenue, the Department of Finance reported.

Although vehicles that have collected parking tickets worth $350 are usually eligible for booting and towing, for now, the city is not ready to target those vehicles and is focusing only on those with fines that start at $500.

Nevertheless, with so many cars that have racked up parking tickets, many New Yorkers are now waking up each morning to rows of vehicles rendered motionless after they were clamped with boots.

The city’s efforts to tow cars also has been inching closer to pre-pandemic levels, after 6,097 vehicles were impounded through April 29, compared to just 933 in 2021: showing a staggering 553% increase.