City of Austin enforces stricter parking violations

AUSTIN, Texas - In March, the city of Austin added several new parking violations and fines for drivers.

The new changes were approved last month by the city council, and they also include an increase in existing parking violations.

New parking changes in Austin

What they're saying:

City of Austin officials increased parking-related fines and added new parking violations that went into effect on March 1.

"Those are parking in a bike lane, and electric vehicle charging spaces where you're not an electric vehicle, and you're not charging. And a third one is around parking in a special event, no parking areas," says Austin Transportation and Public Works Assistant Director Lewis Leff.

According to Austin Transportation officials, the fine for not paying for a metered space, parking within an intersection, and parking within 30 feet of a stop sign, has increased to $75.

The fines for the new parking violations will take effect in June.

A warning will be issued to drivers until the fines start. The city says this will help with safety on the roadways.

"We're trying to do that type of enforcement, moving forward for the safety and benefit not only of the bicyclists, but of everybody that's in the vehicle or outside the vehicle when those things are happening," says Leff.

Leff says, although the changes were agreed on in February, there have been conversations surrounding the violations for years.

"Other ones, like parking in special event areas, are a result of prior conversations. The Parkland Task Force report back in 2017 or 18 timeframes where they recommended increased fines because of continuing to see the behavior that we're trying to avoid moving forward. The last one around electric vehicle charging is, again, feedback received from the community, where we've seen vehicles that are not even electric vehicles parking in these spaces," says Leff.

For the full table of parking violations and associated fines, click here.