Some city officials in Helsinki and Tampere want to introduce escalating fines for parking violations that pose safety hazards.
If parking violation fines were staggered, there would be higher fees for parking too close to a tram track or a zebra crossing compared to leaving a vehicle at a parking space too long.
Currently parking fines in Finland's larger cities are generally two-tiered, depending on whether they're in the downtown or on the outskirts, but do not take into account the dangers or inconvenience posed by improper parking.
For example, parking violation fines in Helsinki and Tampere are 60 euros but in the priciest zones they can be up to 80 euros.
However, bringing a sliding scale to parking fines would require a change to the law.
The conversation about changing parking violation fine arrangements was sparked earlier this month after the City of Helsinki published a report on the city's revised parking policy, which was covered by newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
Prepared by experts, the report stated that parking violation fines should be staggered according to the seriousness of the offence — so that fines would be higher for violations that endangered road safety.
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The experts wrote that fines should be at least equal to road traffic fines handed to drivers found to have not complied with road traffic signs. The current traffic violation fine for such non-compliance on the roads is 100 euros.
Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee is considering a bill that would limit the monitoring of parking to being a public endeavour. According to a Helsinki parking working group, such an arrangement would allow escalating fines to be established.
The City of Tampere's parking inspector, Sami Hurinki, said the city should examine the possibility of implementing staggered or escalating fines.
Tampere's nearly brand-new tram system has already caused parking-related problems.
Hurinki explained that some cars park too close to the tracks when they stop to unload vehicles.
When a mode of public transport like a tram is held up, it can cause delays to many people with the potential to cause major penalties and costs for society, but the maximum parking violation fine is currently 80 euros.
"Sometimes it seems that 60 or 80 euros is not enough of a deterrent to change things," Hurinki said.
Noting that he's in favour of staggered parking fines, he said people with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to bad parking decisions by other drivers.
"In situations that involve the risk of danger or inconvenience, the fines could well be doubled," Hurinki said.