Big Apple drivers are trying to stay away from costly parking tickets — and keep people from taking their spots.
Some Bronx motorists are now getting creative to avoid $250 tickets, as nearly 1,000 MTA buses are equipped with cameras to capture the license plates of cars blocking bus lanes.
A video shared online showed a line of illegally parked vehicles sitting in a bus lane on Webster Avenue with their trunks open to avoid cameras, their license plates pointed skyward.
“POV: You’re avoiding getting a bus lane ticket in NYC,” A TikToker shared last Sunday.
Some people were affected by this move.
“This is really genius,” one woman marveled in the comments on the clip, which has been viewed 150,000 times.
One man lamented, “I wish my plate was on the trunk, not the bumper.”
Others put the brakes on the trunk idea.
“You’re not going to win a fight against a bus ticket,” one woman advised.
“I close the trunk doing this,” warned one TikTok user.
Other plates have been seen covered with towels to protect them from being photographed.
The fine for obscuring license plates to prevent them from being captured on camera can be even higher than a bus lane ticket – as of June, it ranges from $100 to $500.
According to the Department of Motor Vehicles, repeat offenders with three or more convictions within five years face a 90-day suspension of their registration.
Avoiding bus lanes isn’t the only smart move urban drivers can make.
On Monday, the same TikToker shared a video of what appears to be fake fire hydrant Who had fallen on a NYC sidewalk.
“People put fake hydrants in front of their houses so you won’t park there,” he wrote. “I wonder why there are 5 hydrants on one block,” he wrote.
(TagstoTranslate)Metro(T)US News(T)Department of Transportation(T)Driving(T)Exclusive(T)MTA(T)The Bronx(T)TikTok
