The City of Cambridge has nearly doubled the amount of parking tickets given out from last year.
As the year winds down to an end the city is reporting handing out 17,350 parking tickets to drivers who have improperly parked their vehicles or over stayed their welcome in a public lot.
In 2022, the city gave out 9,503 tickets in 2022 with a total revenue of $271,925.
City staff say the increase in parking tickets is a direct result of the municipality ending relaxed bylaw measures put in place during the pandemic to help struggling businesses.
In 2023, the city went back to enforcing parking violations and tightening up overnight parking rules in the downtown cores.
Out of 832 on-street spaces and lots, 31 had over 100 tickets with the most ticketed street continuing to be Linden Drive in Preston Heights with 1,004 reported violations.
The Water Street South Lot was in second with 522 tickets, followed by Equestrian Way with 456 then Coronation Boulevard and Ridge Road each with 456 to round out the top five.
Private property owners also hire private security companies to enforce their specific parking regulations and issue City of Cambridge parking tickets. This accounts for high ticket numbers in areas such as Linden Drive, Hardcastle Drive, Coronation Boulevard, and Compass Trail.
Having issued over 17,000 tickets this year, the city would have generated nearly $500,000 in revenue and could be on track to at least double it again next year.
Although the city doesn't break down its revenue budget line for parking fines specifically, it says it anticipates collecting a total of $3.7 million in fines, penalties and interest in 2024. That revenue makes up two per cent of its operating budget revenues and the city says most of it comes from parking enforcement and other penalties.
On the city's website they say by-law is enforcing parking 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but it only processes complaints about parking violations Monday to Friday, between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
More information about parking rules in the city of Cambridge and how to file a complaint can be found here.