Parking in Seattle can be stressful and the data reflects that. Nearly 650,000 parking citations were issued in Seattle between January 2024 and September 2025, according to data from the Seattle Municipal Court. Gene Balk (the FYI Guy for The Seattle Times) looked at the data and noticed that it shows that parking tickets accumulate at some Seattle addresses much more than others. What he found might surprise you!
Here is a quick breakdown of these Seattle parking ticket hot spots.
Surprisingly, Seattle’s hot spots for frequently-issued parking tickets are not in high-traffic central areas like downtown or Capitol Hill. Seattle’s number-one parking ticket hot spot is actually in Ballard at 8498 Seaview Place N.W. This is the parking lot at Golden Gardens Park. There were 3,920 citations issued here between January 2024 and September 2025—more than four times as many as the second-place location. And the most common reason for these tickets wasn’t expired meters (parking at Golden Gardens is free) or even due to the frequent issue of people parking on the grass due to overcrowding in the summer. Most of the tickets issued in this location were actually due to expired tags or improper plates.
The second parking ticket hot spot in Seattle is in South Lake Union (1050 Valley Street, a parking lot south of Lake Union Park) and the third location on the list is in the University District (an area on the 1000 block of Boat Street). City parking lots at Magnuson Park and Seward Park rounded up the top five locations for most parking ticket citations in Seattle.
For most parking violations in Seattle, the cost ranges from $43 to $78. However, it can soar as high as $250 for the most severe infractions. Trying to avoid getting a parking ticket in Seattle? The data reflects that the busiest ticket-writing days in Seattle are Tuesday through Friday, with Wednesday being the peak and Sunday being the slowest day. The most common parking violation in Seattle is not paying on metered streets.
The takeaway? Remember to pay for parking on metered streets—especially Tuesdays through Fridays!—and the next time you go to Golden Gardens, consider taking a bus, bike, or anything other than your own car with its expired tags.