The catalog of fines was renewed in November. Since then, some offenses such as speeding and parking on the bike lane have become significantly more expensive. Many cities and municipalities notice this in their income.
Traffic offenders brought many states and municipalities in Germany significantly more revenue in the first half of the year than a year earlier. This was the result of a survey by the German Press Agency. The authorities sometimes attributed the plus to the changes in the catalog of fines, which have provided for higher penalties for individual road traffic offenses since last November.
However, trends cannot yet be discerned in all federal states. Cities in the southwest reported significantly higher revenues in the first six months. In Baden-Württemberg’s state capital, Stuttgart, they totaled 11.5 million euros. A spokesman said that was an increase of 5.2 million euros compared to the first half of 2021. The reason given for this was the increase in warnings and fines.
At the same time, municipalities in Saxony referred to more violations that had been identified. According to the city administration, around 9.34 million euros were taken in Leipzig by the end of June, around 4.25 million euros more than in the first six months of 2021. In the state capital Dresden, income doubled to around 4.77 million euros. With the new catalog of fines, traffic offenders have to pay higher fines if they are caught. For example, if you drive 16 to 20 kilometers per hour too fast in town and are flashed, you pay 70 euros instead of 35 euros as before.
It has also become more expensive for those who park illegally on sidewalks and cycle paths, stop illegally on protective lanes or park and stop in the second row. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the state of Brandenburg earned around 30.68 million euros by the end of June, almost 10 million euros more than in the first six months of 2021. The Ministry of the Interior suspected that corona restrictions last year also played a role as a reason for the increase . In the early days of the pandemic, significantly fewer vehicles were on the roads. Berlin, Thuringia and municipalities in Bavaria and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania also recorded more income.
The Central Fines Office in Hesse spoke of an increase of more than eleven million euros in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year. In Essen in NRW, more than 7.2 million euros were flushed into the city coffers in the first half of the year, significantly more than a year ago and more than in the same period of 2019, i.e. before the corona pandemic.
The General German Bicycle Club (ADFC) welcomed the higher penalties in the new catalog of fines and pointed out: “It would not be wrong to hire more staff for controls, because without a certain probability of being sanctioned for misconduct, even increased fines will not work .” If, for example, new cycle paths are created, they would either have to be protected against parking or kept free by regular checks. According to calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, there were again more dead and injured in accidents on the roads in Germany in the first half of the year. The changed catalog of fines with tougher penalties did not have a major impact on the speed level, as initial research results suggested.
