It would be nice if the fines went to the people who are harmed by illegal parking. Businesses could claim income from tickets issued in front of their stores, and homeowners/renters could share the income from tickets issued on the streets they live on.

It would be too inefficient and fraud-prone to actually work, but it's a nice idea.

"Harm" is difficult to assess in some cases. What about the bunch of school children who faced a higher than normal probability of traffic accident because somebody illegally parked near a pedestrian crossing? You can't really claim losses against somebody who endangered your life, before anybody is hurt. Maybe that's what fines are for...

Easy: you issue fines paid to the school such that they'll earn whatever a student's life is worth within the expected time period of a student dying from an illegally-parked car. Then you can mandate that the schools put the proceeds into a fund for the affected families.

That would be an efficient use of resources. This whole "law-making" thing isn't hard at all, what do they do all day in Congress?

The City of Seattle Foundation would like to explore your ideas.

Oh, with my input, or in general?