Despite Fewer Alternate Side Days, Ticket Writing Is Up

Through Sunday, there were 18 street-cleaning suspensions for snow and holidays, compared with two at the same time last year.

But tickets are down just 2.4 percent citywide, and are up in Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx.

“This is really outrageous,’’ said motorist Dave Hoyt, 58, of Woodside, Queens.

“You think, ‘Oh, look, they’re giving us a break, suspending alternate-side because of the snow.’ But the city, being what it is, they always find some other way to fine you.

“They’re not going to let a dime slip through their fingers.’’

In The Bronx, the number of parking tickets issued jumped 8.4 percent, from 17,065 tickets so far this year to 15,736 for the same period in 2013.

“I guess we’re just doing our job, ma’am,” a traffic agent near the Bronx courthouse said when asked about the increase.

Manhattan parking tickets dropped from 39,160 to 33,524, and Staten Island dipped from 3,056 to 2,922.

The NYPD did not respond when asked to explain the statistics.

The city Department of Transportation coordinates with the Sanitation Department to decide when to suspend parking regulations.

The DOT said it suspended the restriction again Monday — despite only a slushy dusting of snow the night before — to remove that snow and to allow Sanitation to continue spreading salt.

The regulations were suspended again Tuesday to allow more salt-spreading and so workers could continue to chip away at the ice piled up on curbs, a Sanitation rep said.

Because Wednesday is Lincoln’s Birthday, a holiday, the rules will be suspended then as well.