Earlier this month, News4 reported D.C. drivers have been fined millions of dollars for blocking Metrobus lanes. By far, the #1 question we heard from viewers was: "How many of those tickets are actually getting paid?"
Since the District began the new camera enforcement, it's issued more than $15 million in tickets, but lots of them have gone unpaid, resulting in drivers racking up late fees in addition to the original fines.
Since November of last year:
- more than 147,000 tickets have been issued
- so, far about 83,000 of those tickets have been paid
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Drivers have paid up almost $10 million, but more than $12 million in fines and late fees remain unpaid.
The District has 13 miles of dedicated bus lanes, which are painted red. Cars are not allowed in those lanes during rush hours, except when making a right turn.
Since last November, drivers have been getting $100 fines for blocking the lanes when they're caught by cameras installed on about 140 Metrobuses. The fines double if they're not paid on time.
Sharon Kershbaum, the director of the D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT), said the goal of enforcing the bus lanes is to keep traffic moving.
"If you've got people that are parked in the bus lane, it's forcing the buses to drive around it," Kershbaum told us earlier this month. "And they often need to wait, and things back up. So the efficiency gets lost."
Improving safety is also a factor, Kershbaum said.
"Because if there is a car that's parked in front of a bus stop and the bus needs to let the passengers disembark in the travel lane, they're often weaving in between cars, parked cars or cars that are driving. And it's very difficult to see that," she said. "So there's a safety component and an efficiency component."
Since the District began using photo enforcement for speed and red light cameras years ago, the city has had problems collecting on many of the fines, particularly from out-of-state drivers.
The new bus lane tickets are no exception.
As for who owes the most in unpaid bus lane tickets:
- Virginia drivers top the list, racking up nearly 39,000 tickets. So far, only about 18,000 of those fines have been paid, so they still owe $ 4,229,783.
- Maryland drivers are a close second. While drivers from Maryland were issued the most tickets — nearly 52,000 — they’ve also paid the most fines, more than 30,000 of them. But drivers from Maryland still owe D.C. more than $4 million.
- As for D.C. drivers, they were issued more than 41,000 bus lane tickets. So far, they've paid more than 25,000 of them, with more than $2.6 million in fines and late fees still owed.
The District plans to add another 10 miles of priority bus lanes next year, and Metro plans to install another 70 cameras to buses this year.
