Under the circumstances of people getting rich from the prosperous gambling industry, the number of traffic fines increased in 2006 by nearly 78 percent compared with the year of 2005. Can charging traffic fines help improve traffic problems?

From the statistics of the traffic department, it showed that there were nearly 480,000 cases of traffic fines recorded in 2006, most of them were related with road blocking and the violation of traffic regulations. Maggie Lei, who has been the administrative officer for the Traffic Department for five years, deals with traffic documents. She said that within the past few years, Macao people became much richer than before due to higher salaries, and they have more money to afford new cars and motor-vehicles. For many of them, traffic fines are such a small amount that they did not care if they were fined or not in many cases. She said, "One day, a man needed to pay MOP5000 for accumulated fines." She added that the man told them he would continue to park anywhere he liked because he had money.

Lei Chi Meng, 45, who has been driving for 12 years, said that he could hardly find a place to park his car no matter whether it was a assigned parking area or not. He added, "The only way for me is to park my car beside the road." Another driver, April Wong Choi Ieng, 22, has been driving for one year, said, "I don't mind parking elsewhere other than the assigned parking areas." She also said that if she was fined no more than six times within a year, she did not need to pay the fines immediately; this is how Macau drivers would handle fines. "I did not feel nervous about being fined," she said that she just "neglected" them.

More people neglected the traffic fines as Wong did because they held a similar assumption that they did not need to pay fines if they were not fined more than six times in a year. However, this is a wrong assumption. According to the traffic rules, if anyone who has been fined, they should pay the fine within 15 days, otherwise his/her case will be directly sent to the Primary Court. Once the fine case is in the Primary Court, he/she has to appear in the court to defend his/her case on an appointed date. They need to pay the fine immediately after the court's decision.

Raymond Chu Weng Seng, who has been a policeman for 17 years, talked about how he dealt with traffic charges on the street, and how he penalized those who violated traffic codes. Chu said, "I have to issue fine tickets over 200 times a day." He added, "The practice of ignoring traffic laws seems quite prevalent nowadays."

According to the traffic law, those who violate traffic regulations will be charged on the account of the seriousness of blocking roads. If there is any argument about the penalty, the case will be directly transferred to the Primary Court. Wong commented that she understood the traffic law, but she still would not pay fees once she received a ticket. "It was not my fault for illegal parking. It was the Macau Government which did not provide more parking spaces," she argued.

Since people commonly neglect fines, the lack of parking spaces in the city becomes so acute that drivers just park their vehicles anywhere they can find, ignoring the parking rules and refusing to pay the fine. It is easy to see illegally parked cars everywhere, around universities and schools, outside shops or on the street. Based on the information from the traffic department, the areas which have the highest rate of illegal parking are Nam Van Road and Rua Oito do Bairro Iao Hon. Meng said that he had been fined in Rua Oito do Bairro Iao Hon for more than four times. However he refused to pay the fine, as a way to "vent my anger," he said.
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Chu explained that most of people violated traffic rules when they parked their cars on the restricted areas and in reserved parking areas. According to the traffic law, people who park over the yellow line would be fined MOP300, those who park in restricted areas would face a penalty of MOP100, and in reserved parking areas, for example a bus stop, a fine of MOP200. People who are issued a fine ticket should go to the Traffic Department within 15 days to pay the fee. If they fail to do so, their cases would be transferred directly to the Primary Court. Then they need to pay all their fines, including the fines which were charged before.