In another sign of a return to normal life in D.C. parking enforcement will start up again soon — but so will a way to pay off your old tickets without penalties.
On Tuesday, June 1, the District will kick off a four-month unpaid ticket amnesty program. Outstanding tickets can be paid off without paying all the penalties that have been racking up over time.
Just in the last three fiscal years, $435,059,098 in parking tickets and fines have gone unpaid in the District.
“Motorists skipped out on paying 2,655,158 parking and traffic tickets in FY 2018, FY 2019 and FY 2020. That sum includes 871,453 tickets that went unpaid in FY 2018 alone, as motorists racked up $139,291,885 in overdue ticket debt in a span of 12 months,” said John B. Townsend II, AAA Mid-Atlantic’s manager of public and government affairs.
Marylanders owe the most; they are responsible for more than a third of all outstanding tickets. Virginians make up about a quarter of them. D.C. residents are responsible for less than a quarter of the tickets, while drivers from other areas make up the rest.
Starting Tuesday, the penalty-free tickets can be paid online, over the phone or at a Department of Motor Vehicles adjudication office.
This is the first amnesty program the District has offered since 2012.
June 1 also brings parking enforcement back to D.C., following it’s pandemic-related hiatus.
Starting July 1, the District will once again boot vehicles that have two or more unpaid tickets.
