ARLINGTON, Va. — The number of parking tickets issued across Arlington County has been plummeting in recent years and its taking a toll on the county’s revenue.
The local government has been forced to scale back its expected parking ticket revenue for this fiscal year by nearly $2 million, according to Insidenova. The trend has caused a budget shortfall currently and, for future fiscal years, will likely alter revenue estimates.
There are a number of factors that may be contributing to the drop, but one that is probably making the biggest impact is an increase in parking kiosks that allow drivers to print out pieces of paper for their dashboards.
County officials tell Insidenova the machines give parkers more options for payment. Instead of searching around for change, they can now simply use a credit card.
The slips are slowing down parking enforcers as well. Examining small slips of paper is more time consuming than looking at traditional meters.
The number of parking tickets issued in Arlington County peaked in 2009 at about 230,000, according to Insidenova. In the most recent completed fiscal year, that number was just 144,000.
That is a drop of nearly 40 percent.
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