I?m doing a study on revenue streams available to local governments as
part of a policy research project. One revenue stream that I have had
trouble working with is parking violation and metered parking
revenues. I have split up my queries on this topic into two separate
answers.google.com posts, this is 1 of 2.

I?d like to know the total amount of revenue generated from parking
violations and parking meters in at least one major city in particular
(one with a population in excess of 100,000) as well as the total
revenue nationally (of all local governments everywhere in the USA).
Ideally I would like these revenues broken down into categories: those
from parking meters, those from meter violations, those from
non-metered violations (like just parking overnight on some
residential street that doesn?t allow parking from 2am to 6am), and
those from other illegal parking (fire hydrants, for example). If this
can?t be done, I would also be happy with that same breakdown for at
least two distinct major USA cities. Preferably these numbers would
originate from reliable sources, e.g. straight from government
documents would be perfect, news publications and such are fine too.

In addition, I would like to hear some estimate for what percentage of
violators are actually caught ? everyone has gotten away with illegal
parking plenty of times. I?d like some reliable source (perhaps a
politician or government group) to quote on how often people in
general get away with illegal parking.

Thanks in advance.

---

Clarification of Question by lumbergh-ga on 08 Jul 2004 12:14 PDT

In response to mwalcoff-ga,

I did ask for serious sources, but a quoted politician or police
officer is fine. For example, at the risk of sounding like an idiot
that's answering his own question:

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?archiveDate=05-14-04&storyID=18852

Here, you're given at the end of the article the following breakdown:

 ?We brought in $6.9 million from citations in the last fiscal year,
$200,000 more than was budgeted,? said Capt. Fleming.

Hillier said drivers who overstay the two-hour daytime limit in the
city?s Residential Preferential Parking permit zones chip in $2.4
million in fines, and folks who do things like improperly park where
curbs are red (no parking zones) yellow (commercial loading and
unloading), white (passenger loading and unloading), or blue
(handicapped), or leave their cars at bus stops, crosswalks,
intersections and the wrong side of the street on sweeping days cough
up another $2.2 million. The remaining $2.3 million comes from tickets
issued for expired meters.

I know this sort of makes the

---

Clarification of Question by lumbergh-ga on 08 Jul 2004 12:17 PDT

** sorry for the break, did an accidental send **

I've had trouble finding any other sources (beyond berkeley), however,
and my question and it's price still stand if I can get those numbers
for another city and the estimation of how many violators actually get
ticketed.

Hello lumbergh-ga,

Following your clarification, I?ve located a variety of resources for
revenues derived by cities from their parking fees and parking
violations. There is lots of information available but it?s not
usually categorized and organized the same way you?ve formulated the
categories in your question. I hope that the various articles I?ve
collected will help you with getting the statistics you?re looking
for.

You said you were frustrated because you couldn?t find statistics for
any other city aside from Berkeley. I discovered that the information
you?re looking for is usually contained in the budged documents
published by most cities. These tend to be huge documents and you have
to look for the transportation or parking authority ? department ?
division (or whatever name is used) to find the exact figures you?re
looking for. You can use the search terms I?ve listed or search for
these terms for specific cities you?re interested in.

I?ve organized what I?ve found into the categories you?ve specified. I
hope that the information I?ve collected will be sufficient to give
you new avenues to continue your research. Please don?t hesitate to
ask for clarification on any of this.

Best wishes for your project.

~ czh ~



==================================
MUNICIPAL INCOME ? METERED PARKING
==================================

http://www.cityofseattle.net/transportation/pdf/SeattleParkingStudyFinalReport.pdf
http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/transportation/parking/parkingmanagement.htm
Seattle Parking Management Study

Figure 2, page 18 Meter Revenues
Section 4, page 53 ? Parking Enforcement Practices
Table 8, page 58 ? Parking Enforcement Benchmarks in Selected Cities
Figure 6, page 67 ? Enforcement Revenues

***** This is a 96 page report that covers all of the issues you
raised in your question and gives detailed information about Seattle?s
practices and benchmarks them against a selection of comparable
cities.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.texastransit.org/archives/000729.html
July 20, 2003  -- City Parking becomes Issue
Parking meter and their rates in Houston have created an issue on
downtown liveability and related issues.

Parking proposal at impasse -- Rate hike just one way togo,some say
Houston Chronicle, July 19, 2003

A City Council vote scheduled this week on whether to increase parking
meter rates has prompted a greater philosophical debate about the
future of downtown revitalization and how the city can best draw
parking revenue.

Houston's parking division brought in only $1.6 million last year from
the city's 5,623 meters, according to its revenue estimates. Another
$5.5 million came from parking tickets and almost $1 million came from
a city-owned lot.

Councilman Bert Keller said it's wrong that 68 percent of parking
revenue comes from citations.

City Hall takes in a fraction of the money other large U.S. cities
collect from parking. The Philadelphia Parking Authority -- with
15,000 meters and several garages -- collected $114 million last year.
Boston raked in $65 million. Even in smaller Baltimore, the total
parking revenue was $15 million, almost double Houston's.

***** This article highlights the problems in managing parking meters
for revenue and enhanced shopping experience.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/site/dpt_index.asp?id=13453
Department of Parking and Traffic
DPT Budget Information

By City Charter, the Department of Parking & Traffic manages the
generation and collection of revenues to support itself and the
expenses of other departments such as the Municipal Railway and
Recreation & Parks.

1. Parking Garages: DPT generates revenue from eight parking garages,
related commercial rentals, and rental payments from City Tow to
support expenses of the Administration Division, the Parking
Authority, and the Parking Meter Program. MUNI and Rec & Park also
receive money from parking garages and related commercial rentals.

2. Parking Meters: Parking and Traffic receives the balance of the
revenues from parking meters once the set amount of $7.6 million is
provided to the Municipal Railway as described in the Traffic Code.
The FY 2003 DPT budget for parking meters was $9.4 million.

***** See the full article for information about total revenues and fine schedules.

-------------------------------------------------


http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/May/20/ln/ln03a.html
May 20, 2004 
Parking meter fees may go up 50 percent 

The tentative plan calls for a 50 percent increase for most city
on-street metered parking stalls and in city parking lots to generate
more than $2 million a year for the city.

Lui-Kwan's plan would cover about 3,100 on-street, metered stalls and
about 900 off-street, unattended parking lot stalls and 1,200
off-street, attended parking lot stalls.
The plan would pump about $2.4 million more annually into city coffers.

***** This article gives you a good perspective on how municipal
governments manage parking fees as a source of revenue.


============================================
MUNICIPAL INCOME -- PARKING METER VIOLATIONS
============================================

http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1087915297214630.xml
Council hikes 44 parking fines
Charges rise for slow payment of expired meter violations 
Tuesday, 22, 2004

Much of the debate before the 8-2 vote focused on the expired-meter
ticket. It's the most common ticket handed out, at about 113,000 a
year.

Currently, the fine for parking at an expired meter is $5 if paid
within the next business day. It's $10 if paid within 14 days and $20
if paid after the 14 days.

According to city figures, it loses money every time it gives out a
expired-meter ticket if that ticket is paid by the next business day.

The city estimates it costs $6.22 every time it writes a ticket, a
claim that Council Member Chris Easthope, D-5th Ward, said "seemed
ridiculous."

The city had already budgeted a projected additional $500,000 in
revenue it would get for the increases.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.townofchapelhill.org/pdfs/budget/13-parking.pdf
Parking Services

Page 5 ? Parking Funds ? Major Revenue Sources
Page 6 ? Revenues

***** This is an 8 page report that gives an overview of municipal
parking revenues from both fees and enforcement.


========================================
MUNICIPAL INCOME ?NON-METERED VIOLATIONS
========================================

http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/budget/2004-05_Budget/Agencies/04-05EBMUNICIPAL%20PARKING.pdf
AGENCY BUDGET SECTIONS
Automobile Parking Division Measures and Targets

***** This is a 15-page document that gives you detailed historical
and projected information about the income derived by the city?s
parking division.



==================================
MUNICIPAL INCOME ? ILLEGAL PARKING
==================================

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-04-13-parking_x.htm
4/13/2004 1:04 AM
Cities get lift from parking fines

CHICAGO ? Cities are jacking up parking fines and cracking down on
unpaid tickets as a way to raise much-needed revenue.

Chicago expects to issue about the same number of tickets ? 3.5
million ? as it has each of the past five years. But the city should
collect about $170 million this year, a 52% increase over the past two
years.

New York expects to collect $540 million this fiscal year from parking
tickets, up from $414 million in 2003 and $380 million in 2002. New
York effectively doubled its parking fines in late 2002, says Doug
Turetsky of the city's Independent Budget Office.

San Francisco expects to collect $87 million this year in parking
fines after it raised most fines last year for the first time in a
decade.

***** The article also offers some statistics on enforcement efforts
on collection of unpaid fines.

-------------------------------------------------


http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/03/news/parkingfinesup/
Parking tickets soar -- tempers next? 
Across America, municipal coffers are being filled by parking violation fines.
May 6, 2004: 4:23 PM EDT 

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Cities across the United States are squeezing
extra blood from a reliable old stone: parking fines, and revenues
from them, have soared.

Paying for illegal parking
Fines for: parking in a handicapped space -- At a fire hydrant -- At
an expired meter
New York 
Los Angeles
Chicago
Houston
Philadelphia
Detroit
San Francisco
Washington
Hudson, NC (pop. 3,196)

***** There are some additional statistics in this article but the
table for Paying for Illegal Parking is most relevant to your
question.



=======================
MISCELLANEOUS RESOURCES
=======================

http://www.itbusiness.ca/index.asp?theaction=61&lid=1&sid=55941&adBanner=eGovernment
Technology in Government, May/June 2004, Vol. 11 No. 4 
Outsourced online parking tickets ease municipal payment management
6/23/2004 3:56:36 PM ? 
The Town of Oakville has seen more than 20 per cent of its parking
fines paid online

***** This article gives you some insights into the use of
technologies in parking fine collections and enforcement activities.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.miamiparking.com/aboutus.html
Miami Parking Authority

In addition to its on-street and off-street parking operations, Miami
Parking Authority shares responsibility with the City of Miami Police
Department and Metropolitan Miami-Dade County for enforcement of
parking regulations. The Authority receives no citation revenue for
these activities. All parking fine revenue generated within the City
of Miami by the Authority is collected by Miami-Dade Clerk of the
Circuit Courts and is allocated to the City of Miami (66.67%) and
Miami-Dade County (33.3%). During the fiscal year 2001/2002, the
Authority's traffic management enforcement efforts generated approx.
$2.5 million in parking fine revenue for the City of Miami and approx.
$1.3 million for Miami-Dade County.

***** This website gives you information on how municipal parking
authorities manage their fee structures and budgets.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.crw.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=18841894
Apr. 28, 2004 
Tech Partners Beat a Path To Success
Top software vendors unite with integrators

Parking enforcement is a leading source of municipal revenue. Of
course, technology has come to the rescue. New York City, for example,
collected $429 million in parking-ticket revenue during 2002, but lost
millions more due to human error. Officials estimate that 1 million
parking tickets went unpaid each year.

Scofflaws have even more to fear from wireless parking-enforcement
systems. The city of Vancouver, British Columbia, collected an
additional $300,000 in 2003 by checking ticketed vehicles against its
repeat-offender database in real-time via a CDPD network. Epic Data, a
developer of wireless data collection systems, provided Symbol's 1733
handhelds, TicketManager software installation and training. Vancouver
expects to recoup the $800,000 cost of the system in less than three
years.

***** This article is interesting mainly for the information about
emerging technologies in parking fine collections.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.worldparkingsymposium.ca/
Parking in a Global Community

The World Parking Symposium IV was held in Toronto, Canada, May 16-19,
2004. Entitled Parking in a Global Community, the Symposium addressed
the issues of mobility, traffic congestion, and environmental quality
within the constraints imposed by the economy and the need for livable
urban communities. Use of automobiles, use of land, transportation
alternatives, infrastructure and regulation are all key elements of
this debate.

For those who missed this exciting event, the presentation notes are
available on-line.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.parking.org/Default.aspx
International Parking Institute



===============
SEARCH STRATEGY
===============

municipal revenues metered parking
municipal revenues parking meters
municipal income parking meters
municipal income parking meter fines
municipal revenue parking meter fines

---

Request for Answer Clarification by lumbergh-ga on 08 Jul 2004 20:35 PDT

Hey chz-ga,

Your answer was an incredible help so I almost guilty asking for this
clarification, but... in my original question I asked for some
estimate for what percentage of parking violators are actually caught
with some reliable source (perhaps a politician or government group)
to quote. As far as I could tell, your articles did not address this.
This number is actually pretty critical so I'm afraid I have to
request clarification...

- lumbergh

---

Clarification of Answer by czh-ga on 08 Jul 2004 22:16 PDT

Hello again lumbergh-ga,

I?ve done some additional research on the question of what are the
odds of getting a ticket if you park illegally and the results of my
research show that it clearly depends on time and place and local
policies. I?ve collected some articles to illustrate this. Sometimes
?ticket quotas? exist to generate revenue ? although most
jurisdictions will deny this. Sometimes there is aggressive
enforcement in some locations because frequent customer turnover is
important for merchants or local establishments. Local politics is
frequently a key element in the degree of enforcement and the
likelihood of getting a parking ticket.

I?m glad I was able to help you with your question. As a new user I?d
like to draw your attention to the Google Answers pricing guidelines
so that you can calibrate your expectations.

http://answers.google.com/answers/pricing.html

$50 is normally ?the minimum price appropriate for complex, multi-part
questions.? like yours. $20-$50 questions ?typically require at least
30 minutes of work.? I spent several hours on your question because I
was intrigued by it but you should not expect this under normal
circumstances. I was happy to help and I hope you become a frequent
customer at Google Answers.

Good luck with your research.

~ czh ~



http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20040408-122354-6475r.htm 
D.C. increased parking-ticket revenues in '03 

Parking-enforcement officers do not have ticket quotas, Ms. Myers
said. DPW has about 200 ticket-writers, but the Metropolitan Police,
U.S. Park Police and other law-enforcement agencies in the city also
write parking tickets.

Early last year, DPW had 170 parking-enforcement officers; in 2001, it
had only 70. In March 2002, the D.C. Council passed legislation
increasing DPW's authorized strength of parking-enforcement officers
to 247 for patrolling the District's 15,270 parking meters and 3,500
city blocks of unmetered but restricted parking spaces. The city now
has 17,000 parking meters.

***** This article highlights the impact of the number of enforcement
officers in proportion to number of parking meters.

-------------------------------------------------


http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/05/12/MNR.TMP
May 12, 2003
DPT says "tough times' call for more parking citations 
Supervisors told to write 40,000 extra tickets

Hurting for money, the San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic
is telling its supervisors to get off their carts and write up an
extra 40,000 parking tickets in the next 45 days.

Last year, parking tickets accounted for $67 million of the city's
general fund. But this year -- thanks to the economic downturn and the
cost of replacing thousands of meters with high-tech devices -- the
city is facing an 8 percent drop in ticket revenue.
That translates to a loss to the general fund of $5.5 million. 

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.aaany.com/automotive/maintenance_service/tips_stories/Automotive_Advice/Consumer_Rights/story.asp?xml=half_billion_dollar_parking_ticket.xml&SrcID=05
The Half-a-Billion-Dollar Parking Ticket

***** This article discusses ?enforcement blitzes? in New York City.

-------------------------------------------------


Jun. 16, 2003
THE CITY'S TICKET MAN
 WORKER DISMISSED PARKING TICKETS FOR THE POWERFUL AND CONNECTED

Hoffman's lengthy dismissal list suggests the rigid parking
enforcement system that the Philadelphia Parking Authority instituted
in the early 1980s did not apply to everybody.

For years, the general public has been complaining about the Parking
Authority's brutal efficiency: park your car for as little as 5 or 10
minutes without feeding the meter, ordinary people have learned, and
odds are that a parking enforcement officer will swoop down unforeseen
and leave a $15 or $20 memento on your windshield.

That's the law, the Parking Authority has maintained for years on end.
Same for everyone.
But maybe not quite everyone, the Hoffman data suggests.

Did Hoffman function as a "Mr. Fixit" - among his many dissmals,
taking care of the parking tickets picked up by the powerful - or at
least, the connected?

***** This is an interesting article about ticket fixing in Philadelphia.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.dailyillini.com/sep02/sep10/news/stories/news_story06.shtml
September 10, 2001
Urbana mulls booting

"I'd like to see if booting gets Champaign's collection rate above 90
percent," Patt said.
According to the council members, Urbana already has a 90 percent
collection rate of money for tickets. The ordinance is still under
consideration and no final decisions have been made on it.

***** This article addresses the problem of people who ignore large
numbers of parking tickets.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.ydr.com/story/foi/30659/
June 27, 2004 -- Parking on borrowed time 

A York Daily Record/Sunday News investigation found that of 55,000
parking tickets the city issued in 2003 about 10,500, or 20 percent,
ended up at a magistrate's office for collection.

By the end of 2003, the magistrates' offices recouped half of the
$174,245 owed the city.

For a city hungry for cash, that uncollected $86,522 could help the bottom line.

***** This is a fairly long article that discusses the typical
problems of a city in collecting on unpaid parking tickets.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.parkingticket.com/help/answers/isquota.asp
Is there a parking ticket quota?

Instead of calling them parking ticket quotas they are often referred
to as "performance targets". Lt. Richard Mercer, supervised TEA'S
(Traffic Enforcement Agents) in the City of New York for 27 years and
he was elected and served as the President of the Traffic Agents
Supervisors Union. He is one of the key members of our Consulting
Team.

According to Lt. Mercer, if agents did not write enough tickets the
City of New York would routinely discipline the Agent's up for lack of
productivity. This could result in demotions, transfers to more
dangerous areas of the City and moving the Agents to foot patrol from
vehicle patrol. In other words they lose the key's to the City vehicle
and have to walk. There is no greater incentive for agents to write
summonses than a transfer to foot patrol.

czh, you are awesome.

Unfortunately, the Census Bureau's survey of government finance crams
all "fines and forfeitures" into a single category, so there's no
breakdown for parking fines and meters.