San Francisco loves their parking tickets! In Fiscal Year 2007-2008, the city’s 280 Parking Control Officers (note: “Meter Maid” is no longer polically correct) issued 1,932,416 tickets which generated $92,920,218 in parking fines. That’s an average of $48 per ticket and 28 tickets issued per officer per day.
Here are the top 10 citations:
- 562,066 (29%) – T37C (Street Cleaning): Clean streets and $30,000,000 in revenue (from $53 tickets)! Not bad, SF, not bad.
- 311,111 (16%) – T202 (Parking Meter): What, you don’t carry 10 pounds worth of quarters in your car to cover a meter for an hour? If not, get ready to fork over $53.
- 209,651 (11%) – T315A (Residential Permit Parking): The city makes $7 million on the sale of the permits, and then another $9 million in citations for people without permits. This one will cost you $63.
- 206,420 (11%) – T202.1 (Parking Meter — Downtown): Just like the other parking meter violations, but more expensive ($63) … both the tickets and the meter’s hourly rate.
- 59,533 (3%) – T58A (Parking on Grades): This is how SF makes money from tourists… they always forget to curb their wheels. Wait, you don’t know what a 3% grade looks like? Get out your ruler and level before walking away from your car or else it’ll cost you $48.
- 50,234 (3%) – V5204A (No Registration Tabs): Be sure to put your tabs on your car before they expire, or face a $63 fine. Good news: this is just a fix-it ticket.
- 41,582 (2%) – V22500F (Parking on Sidewalk): You can’t park on the sidewalk, even if you don’t impede any pedestrian or wheelchair. If you do park on the sidewalk, it’s $103. You can parallel-park in front of your driveway, though, as long as no one reports you.
- 36,348 (2%) – V5200 (No Plates): I’m not exactly sure how you get a ticket when you have no plates (hint: cover your VIN #) but here’s a $103 ticket for it. Not sure how they deal with brand-new cars.
- 34,110 (2%) – T32A.1 (No Stopping – Downtown): Don’t block a lane of traffic or else you’ll pay $73.
- 30,941 (2%) – V22500E (Driveway): Thinking of squeezing into that space between those two driveways? One call from a homeowner (or, really, anyone) will get you at best a $88 ticket, and at worst a $400 towing bill.
San Francisco residents — if you find yourself on the wrong end of some of these violations, sign up for free email reminders from us at www.parkzing.com so you don’t get an additional $25 late fee!
(see source)
