Maryland Drivers Receive the Most Parking Tickets in DC
May 11, 2016 // originally published by Washingtonian
There’s a long-held debate around Washington over which jurisdiction is home to the worst drivers. With jobs in DC split about evenly between the city and the suburbs, the District sees drivers from all over put to the test with its one-way streets, traffic circles, back-in-only spaces, and parallel parking. What insight can open data provide into the prowess of the region’s drivers? Newly released parking-ticket data sheds some light.
The District issued more than 1.5 million parking tickets in 2015, generating more than $73 million in fines. While DC residents received a little less than one-third of the tickets, they were not actually the top recipients. That honor goes to motorists from Maryland, who accrued more DC parking tickets than drivers from anywhere else in the country. Maryland drivers received 120,000 more DC parking tickets than DC residents, for a total of 554,265 parking tickets worth over $25 million in fines. The trend is consistent with previous years and, perhaps more importantly, regional lore.
Maryland Drivers Get the Most Parking Tickets in DC
Number of DC Parking Tickets by State License Plate
Source: D.C. Open Data
This does not necessary mean Maryland drivers are the worst drivers in the District. More Maryland drivers may drive through the District than DC drivers. Data doesn't exist on all drivers that come through the District, but Maryland drivers in DC are most likely to live in the surrounding suburbs. Comparing parking tickets per number of residents in DC and the surrounding suburbs of Maryland and Virginia, DC moves up to the top by a considerable margin. In 2015 0.64 DC parking tickets were issued for every DC resident, compared to 0.28 and 0.22 per Maryland and Virgina resident, respectively.
Per Resident, DC Receives the Most DC Parking Tickets
Number of DC Parking Tickets by State License Plate Per Resident
Virginia and Maryland populations limited to counties near DC.
Source: D.C. Open Data
DC parking tickets are doled out to residents of all fifty states, as shown in the map below. Generally, the closer a state is to DC the more tickets per vehicle it has received. States between Iowa and California have the lowest number of DC parking tickets. Despite the distance, West Coast states rack up over 7,000 parking tickets in DC a year. Similarly, Alaska, over 3,000 miles away, is surprisingly not the state with the least number of parking tickets accumulated in the District. That would be Wyoming, one of two states with a population less than DC.
United States of DC Parking Tickets
Number of DC Parking Tickets by State License Plate
Inspired by I Quant NY
Source: District of Columbia Open Data
Technical notes: This piece was inspired by I Quant NY. Data are sourced from District of Columbia Open Data, DC Metropolitan Police Department, and Census Population Estimates. You can find complete code for this post on my github page.