ABSTRACT
Progressive parking fines are a way to deter the chronic violators without unfairly punishing anyone else. Progressive fines are lenient for the many cars with only a few tickets but punitive for the few cars with many tickets. When Los Angeles faced a major budget crisis in 2009, it increased the fines for all parking tickets by $5, regardless of the violation. This across-the-board hike suggests that the higher fines are more about raising money than about enforcing the law. The many tickets for a few repeat offenders suggest that modest fines do not deter drivers who view parking tickets as an acceptable gamble or just another cost of doing business. If cities raise parking fines high enough to deter the few chronic violators, they unfairly penalize many more drivers for occasional violations. Most drivers rarely or never receive a parking ticket, and for these drivers modest fines are a sufficient deterrent.
