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Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

mchap.io

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Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#231

Post by maxerickson »

macintux wrote: post #178
maxerickson wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are "capitalistic rules"? Governments absolutely should be looking to make profits, it's just that they don't necessarily have to make them in dollars. So say you were able to objectively measure the value a program produced (costs are usually already known). If a program costs 10 units for every unit of value it produces, maybe it isn't a good program. If it produces modestly more value than it costs, it's maki…

> Governments absolutely should be looking to make profits I understand what you're saying, but I think you're stretching the common understanding of "profits" and risking confusion because of it. Absolutely, government should try to measure the impact of its actions, but expressing that in terms like profit can lead to undesirable consequences like the expectation that a successful self-promoter pretending to be a s…

The common understanding of profit is confused!

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#233

Post by count »

rblatz wrote: post #123
toomuchtodo wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A vehicle’s owner is public information in the US. Credit Karma knows the vehicles I own based on DMV records, and recommends me insurance accordingly.

And they know that because your PII (name, address, social) is mapped to a profile, and that profile is also mapped to license plates and Vins. So you can use one to look up the other info in either direction.

Addresses can be used that way to, but an address as a stand alone data item is used for every public land record in existence.

Think of a license plate as an 'address' for a car.

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#234

Post by mmirate »

gt_ wrote: post #184
mmirate wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but you also need to ... understand that [the problem is] actually solvable. Most people would assume that any effort would be wasted as the authorities would prefer to keep their revenue generator, so they'd never go through with the project. Any reasonable person would make such an assumption without a second thought. I'm still baffled that the city took any action whatsoever in response to this guy's request. Ho…

You’re making the common (and fatal) mistake of evaluating a government on the terms of a private business entity. Governments are of the people so long as the people maintain them as such. When you treat a government like a business, it falls behind on it’s maintenance schedule, and begins to resemble one. There are a lot of people who wish the government was their business, and will encourage you to play along. The…

> You’re making the common (and fatal) mistake of evaluating a government on the terms of a private business entity.

> Governments are of the people so long as the people maintain them as such.

"We the people" decided that government has some set of tasks to perform. Those tasks require resources, so "we the people" decided that we should steal some portion of each others' earnings, in order to provide a means that these tasks be accomplished.

The continued legitimacy of this ... arrangement ... is due to Social Contract Theory.

If, for discussion's sake, we temporarily step into the average-person's shoes and accept the Social Contract Theory at face-value, then it is most simple to conclude that what we are really doing is paying the government a lump sum in exchange for some set of services, and by garrulously quarrelling and advertising to each other we can decide who pays how much, and what is the set of services, and to a limited extent how the services ought be provided; under the limitation that if all the lump sums can't pay for all the services, then the difference will have to be made-up by printing more money and thereby reducing everyone's purchasing power (in short: further theft-from-all).

From that we can conclude that the "best" government would be the one which satisfied the majority of the desires of the majority of the people while appearing to take, in return, as little as possible. Does that not sound like the goal of a business?

> The USA had some ingenious (and flawed) founders who set in place some rights and traditions that reserve at least a small finger hold which resembles democracy, by which the people can mobilize effectively.

Correct.

Problem is, that kind of mobilization will cause enough chaos that it's not worth doing it over just a parking-ticket racket.

No, it will likely require some single, unambiguous, flagrant, overt, unapologetic and high-stakes treason against the letter of our principles and procedures ... before the 2nd Amendment's most fundamental purpose is put-to-action.

And I have no faith that the outcome of such an event, will be nontrivially better than the Articles of Confederation; it probably won't even outshine the Constitution of 1788.

But this whole discussion is going far afield enough that my betting-money says we'll soon hear from Fearless Leader Ang...

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#235

Post by btrettel »

mmirate wrote: post #218
efosmark wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ride 6 miles to work and pack my work clothes. It only takes me 25-30 minutes. If I arrive to work sweaty, I shower. I know not everyone has the luxury of having a shower at work, but every company I've worked at so far has had one. On the ride home I change back into my riding clothes and spray sunscreen. Just keep hydrated and you will be fine.

Perhaps. Still requires more discomfort and ritual than driving a car.

My impression is that most people think cycling regularly is far more difficult than it actually is.

You'll adapt in more than one way. You'll get in better shape, so you won't sweat as much or be as tired by the cycling (or tired at all). More importantly, your attitude towards the discomfort will change. Yes, it takes effort and can be uncomfortable, but it's all perfectly acceptable after a while. Seems like a good example of the hedonic treadmill.

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#236

Post by mmirate »

btrettel wrote: post #235
mmirate wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps. Still requires more discomfort and ritual than driving a car.

My impression is that most people think cycling regularly is far more difficult than it actually is. You'll adapt in more than one way. You'll get in better shape, so you won't sweat as much or be as tired by the cycling (or tired at all). More importantly, your attitude towards the discomfort will change. Yes, it takes effort and can be uncomfortable, but it's all perfectly acceptable after a while. Seems like a goo…

> better shape

I already run about 25 miles per week, but thanks for your concern.

The thing is, I get up at the crack of day so as to do it in coldest weather, I wear appropriate athletic attire, I'm unladen by luggage, and if I feel too tired or something goes wrong then I lose a workout instead of my job.

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#237

Post by bpchaps »

kioleanu wrote: post #200
bpchaps wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've put a LOT of thought into address cleaning! And yep - levenstein distance seems to be the way to go. My current stack is: 1. Send addresses to https://smartystreets.com/ - They gave me a year's worth of unlimited geocoding for free. They also tokenize the addresses, but I had about a 50% success rate with them. 2. Tokenization raw addresses with https://github.com/datamade/usaddress . 3. Use a normalized levenst…

I did enjoy it, yes, and I'm following your idea for my town also (it's open data here). Lucky for me, it's a little bit prettier (I think they have autocomplete on their devices for the addresses). I already have some preliminary data - in a city with 350k inhabitants, they gave 150k fines last year, totaling 2.5 mil EUR. I can't wait to search for the hotspots

Let me know how it goes!

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#238

Post by actuallyalys »

sjburt wrote: post #121
actuallyalys wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true of some fines in some places, but to be clear, it's not really true of parking fines in Chicago. The graph in the article indicates there's about $1 million dollars in tickets issued each year. That's around $ .30 per resident and less than one percent of the billions in revenue the city takes in each year ( https://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/obm/sup... , see page 23 in particular) I did…

I believe the y-axis on that graph (assuming you refer to the last graph) is the number of parking tickets, not the dollar amount of fines. So more like $50 to $100 million in parking fines per year.

You're absolutely right. The graph could have been clearer, but I should have double-checked my assumptions and that $.30 per resident figure should have been a red flag. I apologize for that basic error.

Looking into this more, it sounds like, while there probably is a perverse incentive because more tickets equals a significant increase in revenue, the biggest problem is the punitive fines for minor non-traffic offenses that tend to compound for poorer residents: https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2018/02/how-does-c.... Note the headline is a little misleading, they seem to mean "non-moving violations".

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#239

Post by fbender »

chrismeller wrote: post #195
fbender wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government is the only entity that does not have to (and never should) follow capitalistic rules. The government is for the people, and capitalism, by definition, is not.

You will note that I did not say “earn a profit”. There is still a cost center here, and even governments (at least those at the local and usually state level) have to abide by a budget. Spending money one year that results in less money the next doesn’t fit into that model in most budgets. I’m sorry for the confusion, I thought that was blatantly self-obvious.

It‘s not even about earning a profit. It should not be the goal of the government to collect (part of) its budget via fines, i.e. citizens breaking rules. Instead, it should always be the goal to have no need to fine.

And we can actually estimate how much the government actually saves if it does not need to fine (that much). Let‘s first look at the costs of the status quo:

- it costs X to check rules are followed (here: no cars park where they must not); this is mostly personnel costs\* but note that we may be talking about „manhours spent that could have been spent doing more sensitive/productive things“

- it costs Y to maintain the infrastructure to process and follow up on the fines (here: the $190 million IBM contract\* )

- it costs Z to collect the fines, process the payments (personnel costs), follow up on those that do not pay, court fees (process & personnel costs), jail costs (cause it‘s ’murica), and whatnot.

Now, if there are no\* fines to prosecute, here‘s a few ways the state can gain money:

- Citizens spend less time and money with unproductive work (here: paying fines), leaving more time for work (or relaxation which again increases productivity) and money to spend (raising economic output + sales tax).

- Officers, beuracrats, and judges can spend their time dealing with more important work.

- E.g. in the case of parking fines, businesses affected by cars parking in their way can instead do their business unhampered, i.e. be productive and this increases, again, economic output.

All of that increases tax returns (or reduces tax money spent for dealing with the fines).

\* Obviously, there‘s no way fines will drop to zero, because humans. But minimizing fines allows to minimize capital and infrastructure costs and increases economical output, thus there‘s a net gain that can offset the costs to reach that goal, if not immediately then within a few years.

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#240

Post by btrettel »

mmirate wrote: post #236
btrettel wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My impression is that most people think cycling regularly is far more difficult than it actually is. You'll adapt in more than one way. You'll get in better shape, so you won't sweat as much or be as tired by the cycling (or tired at all). More importantly, your attitude towards the discomfort will change. Yes, it takes effort and can be uncomfortable, but it's all perfectly acceptable after a while. Seems like a goo…

> better shape I already run about 25 miles per week, but thanks for your concern. The thing is, I get up at the crack of day so as to do it in coldest weather, I wear appropriate athletic attire, I'm unladen by luggage, and if I feel too tired or something goes wrong then I lose a workout instead of my job.

None of the things you mention can't be done while cycling. Many of us get up early to beat the heat, wear reasonable clothes, and drive or take the bus or whatnot if cycling is not possible. I have reasonable cargo capacity on my bike so a normal day's bag is not a problem. Cycling in this case could replace a workout for you which could overall save you time given that it doubles as a commute. I used to be a fairly dedicated runner, but I decided cycling was a better use of my time.
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