Utilizing FOIA and some clever software Mr. Chapman quickly identifies a troubled spot for parking in Chicago and gets results!
http://mchap.io/using-foia-data-and-unix-to-halve-major-source-of-parking-tickets.html
The story relates how the author used Freedom of Information Act requests to gather raw data on parking tickets issued in Chicago. What he received was a semicolon-delimited text file containing a great number of data entry errors. The author outlines the steps taken to clean and extract data on a likely problematic parking location. Armed with this data, he visited the location and discovered very confusing signage. He reported this to the city, who rectified the signage. This led to a 50 percent decrease in the number of tickets issued for that location.
I immediately asked myself three things
1. How much more effective has that corner become?
2. Who's grumbling about the loss of revenue?
3. What would happen if more of us did this very thing?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by easyTree on Thursday August 16 2018, @07:06AM
In Manchester, UK - the local council has made 'badly signed' access changes to the main bus route resulting in fines of £9M ($11.5M) in six months!
For example there are T-junctions where you are fined if you turn left OR right, right next to a major hospital.
They've shown no reluctance to weasel out of their responsibilities to the public.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/oxford-road-bus-lane-fines-14326548 [manchestereveningnews.co.uk]