Is free street parking available in most German cities?

Parking Violation Revenues and Statistics (Question 1 of 2)

• 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.

• Answer:

  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