Like it or not, Denver issuing fewer tickets
There have never been more cars on Denver’s streets, but drivers are getting fewer parking tickets.
And not everyone is happy about it.
The city handed out a little more than a half-million citations in 2018, according to a recent financial report — the most lenient year for misbehaving drivers since at least 2005. That’s the earliest year for which records were available.
In all, parking enforcement has fallen 22% since its peak in 2013, despite rapid population growth and enforcement technology upgrades — a trend that worries business owners and mobility advocates.
The reason for the phenomenon is simple: In an ultra-competitive labor market, Denver’s parking enforcement team shrank to 30 people by early 2019, just half its normal size.
“Amid a strong economy and low unemployment rates the last few years, we started having a hard time retaining and recruiting enforcement agents,” public works spokeswoman Nancy Kuhn wrote in an email. Right-of-way agents, as they’re called, are paid $19 to $28 per hour.
The trend also hits the city’s income. In 2018, the city collected about $27 million in parking fines — the lowest figure in nearly a decade. That money goes into the general fund, not the parking program.
The city is responding, Kuhn said, by converting 16 of the temporary and hourly positions into permanent, full-time jobs. The enforcement team now has rebuilt to 49 people, although it’s still short of its full capacity. The mayor’s proposed budget for 2020 also grows funding for enforcement by 14%.
But even amid the rebuilding, the parking ticket count is trending still lower this year, Kuhn said, continuing a multiyear trend.
Washington, D.C., recently has considered a more drastic option: giving volunteers the power to report parking violations with an app for review and potential ticketing, as CityLab reported. Malibu, Calif., already uses volunteers.
For now, Denver’s unintentionally lighter touch may be a relief for the people on the receiving end of parking tickets.
Frequent downtown visitor Aaron Bly, 32, collects roughly one parking ticket per month, despite his best efforts. But news of falling enforcement doesn’t tempt him to cheat the system when his work as a political consultant requires him to use downtown meters.
“Still gonna pay,” Bly said after parking his Subaru. “It doesn’t bother me too much.”
Meter violations cost $25, while other violations run higher.
Parking tickets have their de
fenders. Besides keeping drivers from monopolizing spaces, the city’s right-ofway team also defends bike lanes from delivery trucks and protects parking spots for people with disabilities.
”People should have the freedom to get from A to B and feel safe while doing it,” said Councilman Chris Hinds, “and if we continue to obstruct the right of way, people don’t feel like they have that freedom or safety.”
Hinds represents Capitol Hill, where the cars are packed just as tightly as the historic apartment buildings.
On a typical commute to city hall in his wheelchair, he might take photos of three different automobiles blocking bike lanes, crosswalks and sidewalks, he said.
The most commonly cited nonmoving violations in 2018 and so far in 2019:
• Tow-away zone, 37%. • Meter violation, 27%. • License plate issue, 17%.
• Overstayed maximum time, 10%.
• Bike lane and sidewalk violations, less than 1% each, for a total of 4,600 violations.
Cyclists have been particularly vocal about the need for more enforcement, waging a name-and-shame social media campaign against people who block bike lanes. They’re even using services such as safelanes.org and thingsinbikelanesdenver.com, which collect photos and reports of bike-lane blockages.
“People will drive wherever they can fit their vehicle,” said Stephen Braitsch, designer of safelanes.org. Like a gas, “they’ll expand to fit any space.”
With limited resources, the city is focusing on areas where parking demand is highest — downtown, basically — and on safety, including illegal parking and bike lanes, Kuhn said. Falling enforcement also has coincided with a slight decline in the usage of parking meters, according to city revenue figures.
Reduced enforcement concerns business interests, who want parking spots to open up frequently for new visitors.
“Obviously, without parking enforcement to help keep that turnover happening, that’s a challenge,” said Andrew Iltis, senior mobility manager for the Downtown Denver Partnership.
Drivers still have their pick of roughly 42,000 private downtown spaces despite the redevelopment of some surface parking lots. In fact, many new buildings come with several floors of parking. But demand for public on-street spaces remains high because they are much cheaper for short-term users.
Then-Mayor John Hickenlooper lowered downtown fees to their current rate of $1 per hour after taking office in 2003, saying that parking costs were driving shoppers out of downtown. They’ve hardly been challenged since.
“It becomes an emotional issue really quickly,” Iltis said of transportation questions in Denver’s changing urban landscape.