The Financial Strain Of Parking Tickets On Americans

One thing many Americans don’t budget for when they travel, even if it’s just locally around town, are parking tickets. Yet this tiny slip of paper can have some real financial consequences, especially if you don’t pay it in a timely matter! A $2 coffee can turn into a $102 coffee real quick if you don’t heed the, sometimes hard to find, signs that dictate when and who is allowed to park in that spot.

Many of us don’t give parking tickets a second thought after we have paid and are done with them, besides maybe to grumble to our spouses about what a waste of money that 5 minute park job was. But when you start to think about how much American cities are really making in revenue from these expensive parking tickets, it makes you wonder if some of those signs aren’t easily visible on purpose…

So let’s take a look at just how much major cities around the United States are making in parking ticket revenue each year, and how much they’re actually making per capita thanks to it.

The top 10 cities with the highest parking ticket revenue are:

1. Baltimore, Maryland — $100.87 per capita ($61,695,948 in total)
2. San Francisco, California — $98.80 per capita ($68,200,000 in total)
3. Washington, D.C. — $98.27 per capita ($68,200,000 in total)
4. Chicago, Illinois — $97.20 per capita ($264,000,000 in total)
5. Boston, Massachusetts — $83.37 per capita ($57,800,000 in total)
6. New York, New York — $63.20 per capita ($545,000,000 in total)
7. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — $45.70 per capita ($72,279,047 in total)
8. Denver, Colorado — $38.98 per capita ($27,466,003 in total)
9. Los Angeles, California — $37 per capita ($148,000,000 in total)
10. Seattle, Washington — $28.66 per capita ($20,773,136 in total)

Baltimore is ranked first, which is surprising to see when compared to much bigger cities. Baltimore has 611K residents while NYC has over 8.6 million, L.A. has 4 million, and Chicago has 2.7 million residents. Could Baltimore’s lack of parking be the reason it ranks first?

Residents of Phoenix and Nashville luck out with incredibly low revenue per capita of LESS THAN ONE DOLLAR! The parking on Phoenix streets has been compared to that of a parking lot so it’s no surprise to see them at the bottom of the list. Now to compare the total parking ticket revenues that the top cities make annually.

It’s no surprise to see NYC at the top for revenue, especially with a city full of residents and tourists and not enough parking for many of them. Especially when compared to L.A. which has half as many people yet makes less than a third of the revenue that NYC does.

Chicago’s revenue is the second highest, even though they only have half as many residents as L.A., this is due to the city recently letting private companies take over the city’s parking meter system. Ever since this change has been made parking prices have steadily risen, right along with the ticketing revenue. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago’s parking meter system raked in $134.2 million in 2017, putting private investors on course to recoup their entire $1.16 billion investment by 2021 with 62 years left on the lease.

How do you feel about the parking meter system in your city? Does it rank towards the top for revenue?