25-06-2025
Richmond parking tickets cost drivers millions
Drivers paid nearly $43 million in Richmond parking tickets between 2015 and 2023, according to a deep dive from The Richmonder.
Why it matters: Parking tickets are the bane of many residents' existence.
The big picture: The revenue collected — which averages about $400,000 per month — goes toward sustaining Richmond's parking system, not city services in general, city spokesperson Michael Hinkle tells Axios.
The system includes Richmond's contract with SP Plus Corp. to issue citations, Hinkle says.
The five-year contract, which expires December 2026, costs Richmond about $5.6 million a year, reports the Richmonder.
That's more than the money Richmond gets from parking tickets annually, per the Richmonder's analysis.
Zoom in: Despite it feeling like the city's parking monitors are everywhere, they're still not ticketing as much as they did pre-pandemic, which means parking ticket revenue hasn't bounced back yet.
That could change when the minimum charge for a parking ticket jumps from $25 to $30 on July 1.
Thought bubble: I'm personally dreading that increase considering I just found out I've paid Richmond $1,032 in parking tickets since moving to the city in 2020.
