News

Sep 27, 2023

Houston roads with most parking tickets make millions in fines

Omar Nicholson, a parking compliance officer, demonstrates a new boot system

Omar Nicholson, a parking compliance officer, demonstrates a new boot system Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, near the intersection of St. Emanuel Street and McKinney Street in Houston. The new boot can be paid for and unlocked remotely.

It happens to us all. You’ve gone 15 minutes long on your parking meter and you get slapped with a $30 fine. But across the city it seems like some roads are more risky than others when it comes to getting a ticket.

Five Houston streets each generated over $1 million in fines since August 2017, a Houston Chronicle analysis of parking ticket fine data from ParkHouston shows.

McKinney Street, which runs from Downtown next to the ParkHouston's office building and through Greater Eastwood, takes the top spot, with nearly $2.5 million dollars in fines issued over the last 5 years, almost a million dollars more than the next highest street.

Gessner Road, which parallels Loop 8 running north-south on the west side of the city, racked up the second highest amount of fines with $1.6 million since August 2017.

McKinney Street has been the leading fine generator for the city in four of the past five years. Only in the months between Aug. 31, 2020 and Aug. 30, 2021 did Gessner Road rack up more parking fines than McKinney. However, in the past year there have only been about $70,000 in fines issued to vehicles on Gessner – plummeting from $516,000 that were issued on the street in the previous 12 months.

Across all city streets, a total of 1,978,183 citations amounting to $71,811,166 in fines were issued since August 2017. Parking violations are enforced by ParkHouston, not the police department. In fact, HPD has paid at least $25,000 in parking fines since 2017.

These totals represent tickets issued, not necessarily fines collected and naturally favor two types of roads: longer roads with on-street parking, and thoroughfares with commercial parking lots. ParkHouston only tickets vehicles parked in public lots and on the street, with the exception of handicapped spots and fire zones registered with the Fire Marshal's office. Tickets are issued to vehicles parked in those areas regardless of where they’re located.

At the block level, the stretch of McKinney Street that consistently results in the most citations issued is right along the park between La Branch and Avenida De Las Americas. This area, a short walk from Minute Maid Park, Discovery Green and the George R. Brown Convention Center, has long been a hot spot for parking tickets.

The second most cited block is the same block ParkHouston's offices are on, just on the other side of the Eastex Freeway. When asked about the high count of parking tickets near their offices, a ParkHouston spokesperson said that some of these tickets could be $0 dummy citations that parking enforcement officers use to check that their ticketing equipment is functioning. Such test citations are supposed to be purged from the system, but some may remain in the data.

Some of the most expensive tickets issued are for parking in designated spaces without displaying the necessary permits, such as $305 for commercial loading zones or $500 for handicapped parking spaces – the most expensive single violation on the books.

Westheimer Road for example, has over 95% of the 427 violations listed for parking in a handicap zone. Despite the total number of citations being far below most other top streets, Westheimer Road has consistently generated the third-highest fine totals over the past five years.

In contrast, McKinney Street, home to a mixture of different types of commercial and non-commercial buildings, as well as plenty of on-street parking, shows a far broader spread of violations, including parking in a tow-away zone, expired meters, and being too close to a fire hydrant or intersection.

The pandemic saw an expected decline in total citations issued, however the ratio of fines issued vs fines collected has been steadily declining over the last five years according to ParkHouston's adopted budgets.

The fines collected by ParkHouston go into a "special revenue fund" which is used to cover operating costs for the department and to fulfill the department's yearly obligation to the City of Houston's general fund. Pre-pandemic, general fund contributions from parking fines sat at about $7 million.

During COVID, ParkHouston was relieved of their obligation to transfer fees collected to the general fund because they were issuing fewer tickets and collecting fewer fines. With the pandemic easing, contributions to the general fund have been reinstated. As of the 2023 fiscal year budget, $5.4 million in ticket fees will go to the city's general fund.