I-Team: Where In North Texas You're Most Likely To Get A Parking Ticket

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DALLAS (CBS11) - The CBS 11 I-Team wanted to know where in North Texas you are most likely to get a parking ticket.

So the I-Team analyzed a year's worth parking ticket data from Dallas and Fort Worth and found in certain sports at certain times if you let your meter expire or don't read the signs carefully, you're almost guaranteed to get a ticket.

In the 500 block of Elm Street in downtown Dallas (near the Dallas County Records Building and the Sixth Floor Museum), the city issued 775 parking tickets in the past year.

Those tickets written for vehicles parked at just the twelve meter parking spots on the block added up to $38,185 in fines.

A vast majority of the tickets were written between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.

Along Elm Street there's no street parking from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. due the increase in traffic on the street during those hours.

Dallas's parking enforcement director Pame La Ashford said her team strictly enforces the no parking between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. rule on Elm Street because of the need to clear the outer lanes for the evening commute.

"It's a chronic problem," Ashford said. "People don't understand the importance of it. It has a huge impact when we can't get those cars off those lanes."

On a Wednesday afternoon in a span of thirty minutes starting at 4:00 p.m., the I-Team spotted three parking enforcement officers writing tickets in the 500 block of Elm Street.

"It's not fair. You can see the clock," Guillermo Andrade said as a parking enforcement officer was issuing him a ticket.

Andrade said his watch read 3:59 p.m., but his parking ticket showed 4:00 p.m.

"We get that a lot that - 'it's unfair,'" Ashford said. "But it's clearly stated on the meters when you pull up."

Many drivers parked along Elm Street said they didn't know about the no parking between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. rule until they found a ticket on their windshield.
Freda Jones said she didn't see the sign.

"You're rushing, you see a meter, it's convenient, and it should be where you can park," she said.

Ashford said, " It's either we are not enforcing well enough or we are enforcing too much. From a parking perspective, it's lose-lose situation from us."

In Fort Worth the place you are most likely to receive a parking ticket is outside city hall in the 900 block of Monroe St and Jennings Ave.

In the past year on these two blocks, the city handed out more than 2,701 parking tickets - adding up to $77,335 worth of fines.

While some drivers said they believe revenue is the motivation for the city's strict enforcement, a spokesperson for the City of Fort Worth said it's not about the money.

She said it's about making sure people coming down to Fort Worth's central business district can quickly find an open parking space.

Parking ticket hotspots:

Dallas:
500 block of Elm St
1700 block of Elm St
1900 block of Pacific Ave
1700 block of Elm St
100 blocks of North and South Ervay St

Fort Worth:
900 block of Jennings Ave
900 block of Monroe St
400 block of W Belknap St
100 block of W Belknap St
500 block of W Weatherford

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