in parking fines. — million tickets.
Every parking citation San Francisco writes is public record. We counted all of them — every year, every violation type, every neighborhood — so you can see exactly how the ticket economy works. And how to stop funding it.
A nine-figure habit, every single year
Assessed parking fines by year. Watch the 2020 pandemic crater (enforcement was fully suspended that spring) — and how fast the totals climbed back past every pre-COVID year. Hover or tap any bar on this page for the exact numbers.
What the tickets are for
Citations since 2021 by violation type. Street cleaning isn't just first — it's bigger than the next two combined.
Street cleaning: the city's #1 ticket
The fine has more than doubled since 2008 while the rules stayed the same. The posted window says two hours — the median block gets every ticket inside a 22-minute span.
When the tickets land
Street-cleaning citations by hour (since 2024). The overnight commercial sweeps are real — and so is the morning rush.
Which neighborhoods pay
Street-cleaning fines by neighborhood over the last two years, matched block-by-block from the city's address records.
Where tickets surged
The pandemic lull is over. Same six months, five years apart — December–May 2020–21 against 2025–26, every violation type, matched to neighborhoods through the city's address records. The SF Standard mapped the same comeback from SFMTA's books.
Where the money goes
$40 → $105 in 17 years
The street-cleaning fine has been indexed to inflation + agency labor costs every year since 2009 — but the last two hikes (+7.8% in 2024, +8.2% in 2025) were approved "in excess of" that index to help close SFMTA's deficit. $8.50 of every ticket is state-mandated courthouse surcharges. The schedule holds $105 through mid-2028.
It funds Muni
By City Charter (§8A.105), parking fines flow into the Municipal Transportation Fund — they help pay for transit. The Controller's books show $84–96M actually collected per year recently — about 6–7% of SFMTA's ~$1.5B operating budget, against a projected $307M+ deficit.
1.4–1.75× other cities
SF's $105 street-cleaning ticket vs Los Angeles $73 (unchanged since 2012), New York $65, Chicago $60. SF's COVID pause shows in the chart — enforcement was suspended entirely from mid-March to June 2020.
If you can't pay
SF's Financial Justice Project offers a $5-enrollment payment plan ($25–50/month, up to 18 months, late penalties wiped on completion) and free community service for qualifying residents. About a third of first-level appeals succeed — contesting a wrong ticket is not hopeless.
Honesty notes: all dollar figures are fines issued (assessed at the
fine printed on each citation) — not what the city collects. Actual collections run lower:
the Controller books $84–96M/yr in parking-fine revenue, 16% of 2018–23 tickets still
carried unpaid balances as of late 2023, and ~2–3% of citations are dismissed on appeal.
Neighborhood totals cover street-cleaning tickets only, matched via the city's address base
(~60% of rows match cleanly). Data: DataSF ab4h-6ztd; sources for all context
claims in the repo.
Don't be a data point.
Open the live map →CURB shows every SF block's sweeping schedule — and the time tickets actually land on it, from this same citation data. Free, no accounts, push alerts before your block is swept.