Seattle’s Parking Ticket Hotspots May Surprise You

Parking Tickets, we all love parking tickets, right? (not really) Visiting Seattle can be very difficult because you have to find parking, it's not easy. When was the last time you got a parking ticket in Seattle? 

If you live in the Seattle area, it may have been earlier this year. 

According to Seattletimes.com,
‘From Jan. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025, nearly 650,000 citations were issued in Seattle, according to data from the Seattle Municipal Court. The data also shows that tickets accumulate at some addresses much more than others.
You might think the city’s top spots for parking tickets would be somewhere downtown or on Capitol Hill. But no, Seattle’s top parking-citation address isn’t a high-traffic business district.’ 

Watch out for these locations. 

The most parking tickets will be Issued near recreational locations in the Seattle area. For instance, near Green Lake at 7201 Green Lake Drive N. 308 parking tickets were written there over the course of the year. 

If you were visiting Discovery Park in Seattle, you might have gotten a ticket at 3801 Discovery Park Blvd. 349 parking tickets were written there for this last year. 

It's interesting that none of the locations that ranked highest in parking tickets was in a downtown location with parallel parking. If you want to avoid a parking ticket, keep this in mind the busiest days for parking tickets, Tuesday through Friday. Wednesday is the worst day for parking tickets in Seattle. 

The top two locations for parking tickets in Seattle, get this. Number 2 location is located at 1050 Valley St. which just happens to be a parking lot located near the Museum of History and Industry, and the Center for wooden boats. 

Nobody wants a parking ticket. 

So where were the most parking tickets written for? You're going to love this. The free parking lot at Golden Gardens. A popular spot among other things, for scuba divers. The majority of tickets written for this free parking lot were actually for expired tabs or improper license plates. 

Parking in a paid parking lot can be expensive whether you're parking by the day or by the hour. What's more expensive? Getting a Seattle parking ticket. Trust me.
Here are Seattle’s parking-ticket hot spots | The Seattle Times