catalog of fines
Traffic offenders bring more revenue to states and municipalities
Police commissioner Schäfer controls the speed of traffic in the Berlin district of Neukölln. photo
© Christoph Soeder/dpa
Since November 2021, drivers have sometimes had to pay more for traffic violations. How much additional money will be flushed into the coffers of the municipalities and states?
Life has become expensive for speeders and illegal parkers: traffic offenders brought significantly more income to many states and municipalities in Germany in the first half of the year than a year earlier. This was the result of a survey by the German Press Agency. Sometimes the authorities attributed the plus to the changes in the catalog of fines, which have been providing for higher penalties for individual road traffic offenses since last November. However, trends cannot yet be discerned in all federal states.
Cities in the southwest reported significantly higher revenues in the first six months. In Baden-Württemberg’s state capital, Stuttgart, they totaled 11.5 million euros. A spokesman said that was an increase of 5.2 million euros compared to the first half of 2021. The reason given for this was the increase in warnings and fines.
At the same time, municipalities in Saxony referred to more violations that had been identified. According to the city administration, around 9.34 million euros were taken in Leipzig by the end of June, around 4.25 million euros more than in the first six months of 2021. In the state capital Dresden, income doubled to around 4.77 million euros.
With the new catalog of fines, traffic offenders have to pay higher fines if they are caught. For example, if you drive 16 to 20 kilometers per hour (km/h) too fast in urban areas and are flashed, you pay 70 euros instead of 35 euros as before. It has also become more expensive for those who park illegally on sidewalks and cycle paths, stop illegally on protective lanes or park and stop in the second row.
Bike club for more staff
According to the Ministry of the Interior, the state of Brandenburg earned around 30.68 million euros by the end of June, almost 10 million euros more than in the first six months of 2021. The Ministry of the Interior suspected that corona restrictions last year also played a role as a reason for the increase . In the early days of the pandemic, significantly fewer vehicles were on the roads.
Berlin, Thuringia and municipalities in Bavaria and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania also recorded more income. The Central Fines Office in Hesse spoke of an increase of more than eleven million euros in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year. In Essen in NRW, more than 7.2 million euros were flushed into the city coffers in the first half of the year, significantly more than a year ago and more than in the same period of 2019, i.e. before the corona pandemic.
The General German Bicycle Club (ADFC) welcomed the higher penalties in the new catalog of fines and pointed out: “It would not be wrong to hire more staff for controls, because without a certain probability of being sanctioned for misconduct, even increased fines will not work .” If, for example, new cycle paths are created, they would either have to be protected against parking or kept clear by regular checks.
According to calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, there were again more dead and injured in accidents on the roads in Germany in the first half of the year. The changed catalog of fines with tougher penalties did not have a major impact on the speed level, as initial research results suggested.