It's always an unwelcome surprise.
Walking up to the car parked on the street and seeing a little white slip of paper folded under a wiper blade with 'City of Vancouver By-law Notice' in bold red letters. In formal, legal language it alleges you've broken a by-law and have to pay the fine, sometimes costing hundreds of dollars.
It can happen almost anywhere in the city, as there are a variety of parking bylaws and the city has jurisdiction over all street parking in Vancouver.
But where does it happen the most? The city keeps records of where each ticket is given. The top blocks for parking tickets are all in commercial areas, though not all downtown.
Of the top 20 blocks, half are clustered together in the Yaletown and Downtown area. Suffice it to say, if you're parking south of the downtown library, it's best to make sure you're doing it properly.
The worst block for parking tickets in 2022 had a huge amount. People parking on the 800 block of Homer Street racked up a massive 4,100 tickets (almost 1,200 more than second place).
Homer Street in general appears to be a bad zone, as the top four worst-ranked blocks were all along the downtown roadway. In fact, they’re even in order, from the 800-block to the 1100-block, and account for 4 per cent of all tickets issued in 2022.
Nearby, the 900 block of Mainland Street and 800 block of Richards Street are also among the cluster.
Outside of the city's core, Kitsilano put up big numbers with a stretch along West 4th Avenue, from the 1900- to the 2200-block all ranking in the top 20; the highlight was the 2000 block.
Despite being one of the shortest streets in the city, Canada Place (that's the name of the street outside of Canada Place) cracked the top 20. It only exists for a single block, but more than 1,800 tickets were handed out along it.
Overall the worst street for parking tickets was Homer, with more than 17,700 along its whole length. Comparatively, Robson and West 4th were back aways, each with more than 13,000. Richards and West 8th Avenue rounded out the top five, each with around 9,500. Historically, Broadway has been the worst, according to city data, but with the construction along it for the new subway line it's fallen behind.
Of the more than 300,000 parking tickets issued by the city in 2022, the vast majority were for expired (or unpaid) meters and pay stations (nearly 192,000 tickets). Other top reasons for parking tickets include parking in 'Residential Only' spots (34,283), parking in no-stopping zones (26,887), and exceeding the time limit for a spot (20,305).
