Information About Chicago`s Street Sweeping Tickets and Penalties

CHICAGO TICKETS AND TOWINGS OVERVIEW

The City of Chicago will write you a $60 street cleaning ticket if your vehicle is parked on a Chicago street scheduled for cleaning. Furthermore, tow trucks are authorized by the City of Chicago to tow your vehicle. An average towing fee is approximately $170 and $40 per day your vehicle stays in the towing lot. As you can see, failing to move your vehicle during scheduled street cleaning is very costly.

CONTESTING A PARKING TICKET IN THE CITY OF CHICAGO

Use these useful tips to see if you can contest a street cleaning ticket and get out of paying the fee.

1. Check for street sweeping signs where your car is parked. The city is required to post street sweeping signs at least 24 hours prior to street cleaning. If these signs are not present during sweeping, you should be able to contest the cleaning ticket.

• Take pictures of the area to show lack of adequate sign postings.
• Be sure to get street addresses within the photographs to indicate the city block where your car was parked.

2. If many cars on your street were also ticketed, you could make the case that the sweeping signs were not adequately posted.

• Contact the Administrative Law Officer overseeing your cleaning ticket to check the ticket sequence to see if the other tickets issued around your ticket were on the same city block. If 5 or 6 other cars on your street were ticketed, you may have a decent chance of beating the $60 ticket.

3. Getting a ticket while on vacation? If you received a street cleaning ticket while you were on vacation, simply send a copy of your flight itinerary / flight ticket to the city to contest the ticket. You have a great shot of getting out of this ticket.

FINDING YOUR TOWED CAR

Utilize the following website to Find your Vehicle in Chicago. You will need one of the following:

• Licence plate #
• Vehicle Vin #
• Make of Vehicle and Towed Date
• Location and Date - street name you were parked on and relocated date (towed date)