PATTERNED PARKING TICKETS
The Ticket Nobody Wants
PATTERNED PARKING TICKETS
Times, places, and factors to take into consideration when parking around Vancouver
Contents:
Abstract
Methods
Data
Blog: Routes
Conclusion
FEATURED SELECTIONS
Search and Discover
ABSTRACT
Vancouver as a city has extremely high mobility and is connected through an intricate road network. In this study, we observe the distribution of parking tickets across the city of Vancouver in 2019 and 2020 to highlight the areas and dates in which tickets are the most prominent. Due to the new environment Covid has placed the city in, we had the unique opportunity to observe the distribution of parking violations in a normal year, as well as one with a clear decrease of violations and in turn people on the road.
THE TICKET NOBODY WANTS
The city of Vancouver plays host to a large number of people ranging between and beyond residents, outdoors enthusiasts, commuters, students, delivery drivers and tourists. Each of these groups and many more compete for parking across the city for any great number of purposes. We did a geographical analysis to visualize the areas and dates that are more and less prone to the distribution of parking violations by the city of Vancouver.
METHODS AND DATA
METHODS
In Preparing Data we explain our preliminary preparation of the data for analysis. This consisted of taking the particular data that was necessary from each of the sources that we used, and manipulating it to fir our analysis.
We then created calendar heat maps and data clock graphics to illustrate the temporal nature of the parking tickets as described in Temporal Nature. These visualizations illustrate the prevalence of tickets with and between annual, monthly and weekly scales.
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Our next analysis was focused spatially in particular. For this we created a spacetime cube for 2019 and 2020 which we used to do a hotspot analysis in order to display patterns of parking violations within the city. You can view this analysis in Hotspots where we describe the characteristics of the areas most and least effected by parking violations.
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*All of our layers were clipped to an outline of Vancouver as the data we utilized ranged beyond that of the scope of this study*
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DATA
In looking at parking violations, we aggregated information on parking tickets for the past three years 2021 inclusive. The attributes of this information consisted of block, street, violation type, date and bylaw information. We also aggregated block, street and zoning information.
Our main source of data was the City of Vancouver Open Data Portal.
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The maps and graphics published in the blog section of this website contain the respective data used to analyze each.
CONCLUSION
Where and when should you park?
During the Week?
During time outside of the pandemic, one should be most weary of parking regulations on weekdays, most likely during business hours in particular. Now, while this may be true outside of the pandemic, so long as people's schedules and movements are out of synchrony, heightened times for violations are as variable as toilet paper sales.
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During the year?
While 2019, 2020 and 2021 heavily differ quantitatively, the constant throughout each is the prevalence of tickets during the onset and offset of winter. Every year, without fail, January sees one of the highest amounts of violations given out of any month.
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When there isn't a pandemic?
Parking within the city and its immediate surrounding areas is wonderful on the surface, however more than 300,000 tickets may cause you to think again about leaving that meter for an extra hour. For a city with as good of a transportation system as Vancouver, it is worth your time, and more importantly your money to park further outside of downtown and commercial spaces and utilize our wonderful systems.
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During the pandemic?
Now throw everything we've said out the window. With the pandemic, tickets are as variable as Bonnie Henry's regulations, quite literally, and are given out on a far more sporadic basis. That being said still be weary of downtown and its immediate surrounding areas as they are still more prone to tickets than other parts of the city.
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We recognize that these differences can not be solely due to the pandemic, however we strongly believe that they are not due to parking officials being more lenient.
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