Good morning. My name is Paul Harrison, and I represent Transportation Alternatives. T.A. is a 4,500 member citizens group that works for a balanced and rational New York City transportation system.

Strict enforcement of parking and moving violation rules is critical to the safe and efficient functioning of our streets. The lack of it threatens the lives of our pedestrians and the economy of our city. However, as long as receiving a ticket seems like a random event, it is understandable that those who get tickets will feel cheated and abused.

It is reasonable that the city charge drivers for the costs that their driving imposes. But this must be done in a fair manner, so that drivers know what charges to expect. That way they can make rational decisions about whether or not to drive.

The majority of New Yorkers do not own automobiles, but suffer from the noise, danger and pollution created by cars. Non-drivers' taxes pay for the upkeep of roads and bridges. "Free parking" isn't free--the I.R.S. taxes city employees who receive on-street permits as if they were receiving a cash benefit worth as much as $3,900 a year. But whenever anything is underpriced, the demand for it skyrockets. Today's Times has a story about an armored truck that overturned. Bystanders walked off with more than $400,000 that spilled out. If it's free, people will take it. That's what's happening with our parking system. Why not charge what the parking is worth and then use that money to reduce taxes that hurt the economy, like the sales tax?

Our parking policy is severely damaging our competitiveness. Because of congestion and our policy of providing free, or very cheap, parking, it costs 10 percent more to move freight in New York. Much of this money is lost to both businesses and society. No one collects a dime when FedEx has to return a customer's money because it took several hours to get the truck out of the pound. Money disappears when delivery trucks sit in traffic. A more rational system would collect revenue without the threat of towing. It would charge enough so that although companies paid for the privilege, their trucks would travel on streets where parking is plentiful and delays light. Although the city would collect far more, the cost to business would decline because money would stop floating off into the air.

Last year, DOT's Midtown Mobility Task Force worked with business leaders and companies like U.P.S. to come up with a system called the "in-car meter". Using technology similar to the E-Z Pass, commercial vehicles would be assigned a microchip that deducted money from an account while parked. Because the cost of parking in these spots would be set near their market value, only people who really needed to drive would use those spots. Aspen, Colorado has a system like this, using Israeli technology.

The late William Vickrey, who won last year's Nobel prize in economics, was a big supporter of using pricing to reduce congestion and improve the economy. The City Council should follow in his footsteps and ask the administration to set up a special commission. It would examine the city's rules and look at ways that technology can be used to make the system fairer and more efficient. It shouldn't be limited to parking rules. Speeding is a major problem in the city, leading to dozens of deaths every year, but the NYPD is limited in its ability to increase enforcement. Cities like Portland, San Diego and Phoenix are using a system called Photo Radar to cut their violation rates. Exploring this technology would allow the NYPD to make the speed limit a limit, not a suggestion. It's not surprising that people disobey laws when enforcement seems random and rules unclear. Your task is to simplify the rules while removing unnecessary subsidies, but make payment and enforcement sure.