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Kelowna  

Lawrence tops ticket parade

Nearly one out of every eight parking violation tickets written in the City of Kelowna during the past two years was issued on Lawrence Avenue.

That according to figures obtained by Castanet from the city's traffic division.

Figures show Lawrence was by far the most ticketed street in 2013 and 2014, unseating Bernard Avenue, which was number one in 2012.

Parking operation co-ordinator Dave Duncan attributes the switch to the loss of parking stalls when Bernard went from angle to parallel parking as part of the Bernard Avenue revitalization.

Despite the loss of parking, Bernard was still the number two most heavily ticketed street in 2014, followed by Water Street, Leon Avenue and Ellis Street.

The top five remained the same, although in differing order over the last three years.

The entire list of streets and number of tickets issued includes:

  2014 2013 2012
Lawrence Avenue 7,449 5,071 5,687
Bernard Avenue 6,180 3,645 6,183
Water Street 4,356 2,870 2,908
Leon Avenue 4,030 2,362 3,068
Ellis Street 3,675 2,441 2,205
Pandosy Street 2,804 1,386 1,656
St. Paul Street 2,531 1,538 1,830
Sunset Drive 1,734 1,102 1,609
Doyle Avenue 1,581 --- 1,059
Bertram Street 1,415 --- ---
Queensway --- 1,242 1,212
Royal Avenue --- 1,003 ---

Not surprisingly, all but Royal Avenue and Sunset Drive are situated mostly within the downtown area.

Portions of Lawrence, Leon, Bernard and Pandosy do stretch out of the downtown core and out of the area where meters are utilized.

Also not surprisingly, all but Royal Avenue are mostly metered parking.

The top 10 list accounted for between 61 per cent and 64 per cent of all tickets written in the city in any particular year.

  Top 10 Total Tickets
2014 35,755 55,593**
2013 22,460 38,873
2012 27,417 43,507

**Includes about 6,000 warnings issued as part of the public education process when on-street pay parking was established in the South Pandosy area and the expanded residential time restricted areas.

While the number of tickets citywide increased in 2014, so too has the revenue to the city.

Kelowna realized $680,309 from parking related tickets in 2014, compared with $481,772 in 2013 and $398,696 in 2012.

Duncan says part of the reason for the increase in fine revenue is due to a more aggressive approach to chronic offenders. There was also a change in the discount offered to violators.

At one time, overtime parking tickets, valued at $30, would be reduced to $5 if paid with 24 hours. Now, the discount is just $5.

Duncan says many people would park illegally and pay the $5 fine.

He also notes an increase in tickets once the city increased the cost of on-street parking from 50 cents an hour to $1.25 an hour in June of last year.



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