A few years ago I used to take the bus to VCU when I lived in Northside, but then I realized it was faster if I just walked the whole way. In the AM it would be super reliable, but the bus home in the afternoon would regularly be an hour+ late. The pulse functions a lot better than the other GRTC routes, but it only goes east and west. I’m forever jealous of cities with functional bus systems.

Thanks for the info! I wonder, what's the point of contracting it out? Is it just cheaper than direct hires?

Excess to whatever taxes may contribute towards traffic maintenance already, is what I meant. Or maybe it’s estimated that a lot of the money will come from things like parking fines, to create a more self sustained system.

I was over it the moment it happened because I knew I was in the wrong, and I have no interest in fighting something as simple and clear cut as a parking fine. Like I already stated, the fact that I got a ticket was not the point of the post. Curiosity about the economics is the point of the post, which was piqued by the event of getting a ticket. I really don’t know how to make that any clearer.

So I guess it just goes into making it more of a self-sufficient system then, and whatever's left as far as cost just gets supplemented with taxes?

I didn't know how many officers they have so I was just waaaay off base about the cost. My bad. 😭

Now that I know the name of what to look for, I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to find. Lol, money soup. So I guess there wouldn't be a way to tell how much goes in there from where, either, or it's a separate report?

Wait...tampons...a luxury? 🥲

I paid it within less than 48 hours. The point is that I'm curious about the allocation of excess money from fines, not that I'm trying to complain that the officer did their job.

So for city budgets, is that information usually released publicly? I guess I'm generally curious about how the fund gets allocated and what kinds of things get positively affected by the money gained from fines, parking or otherwise.

I didn't even realize there was such thing as a luxury tax!

Thanks! That's what I figured, especially with costs related to running the electronic kiosks, printing passes, etc.

What's the General Fund, is that the same place that tax money goes into?

I'm not an expert, so I was just curious about how their budgeting process works when it comes to traffic-related expenses here. I'm sorry.

If he'd been there he probably would've told me to move, but it definitely taught me that he's generally a luckier person than I am when it comes to not getting caught.

Haha, no, I went there for a potluck to clarify that, but yeah, I did consider coming back to move it down but my partner has parked in city lots in downtown for DAYS without paying or getting a ticket, so I thought I could slide past undetected, as he did, if I didn’t stay overnight. Apparently that was super dumb.

Unless the officers make a lot of money, I can’t imagine that it costs that much just to run the system.