LOS ANGELES — A word of warning for individuals who’ve gotten comfortable with the city’s lax parking enforcement: Los Angeles will resume street sweeping fines on Thursday, tucking $73 tickets under the wiper blades of vehicles that aren’t moved before the bristly cleaning trucks roll through.

Los Angeles suspended ticketing for vehicles in violation of residential street sweeping restrictions and expired registrations, as well as towing abandoned and oversize vehicles on March 16 due to the pandemic. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Los Angeles Department of Transportation will resume ticketing for violations of residential street sweeping restrictions and expired registrations on Oct. 15

  • LADOT had suspended some parking enforcement operations in March due to the pandemic

  • Street sweeping citations make up about 30 percent of LADOT's total revenue from parking tickets

  • LADOT is delaying the booting and impounding of scofflaw vehicles that have accumulated five or more unpaid traffic citations until Jan. 1

After the “L.A. Department of Transportation observed that traffic in Los Angeles was approaching pre-pandemic levels, along with reopening of businesses and facilities and an increasing need to address quality of life issues,” the agency recommended to City Council that parking enforcement be reinstituted, according to a spokesperson for LADOT.

And Thursday, Oct. 15, is the day.

Before the suspension of enforcement, LADOT estimated it would collect $135 million in revenue for the fiscal year 2019-2020 from parking citations. Street sweeping citations generally represent 30 percent of total revenue from citations, according to LADOT. 

The city employs 607 traffic officers, many of whom continued to enforce the parking restrictions that remained in place, such as parking meters and red zones. During the street sweeping enforcement suspension, some officers were redeployed to provide traffic control at COVID testing sites and food banks. 

Since Oct. 1, LADOT has been flyering vehicles to notify the public that it is resuming enforcement. For those unlucky individuals who forget and are unable to pay or have lost employment since the beginning of the pandemic, LADOT says financial assistance programs will be available. It also plans to introduce a program that would provide discounts on fines for early payment. In addition, LADOT is delaying the booting and impounding of scofflaw vehicles that have accumulated five or more unpaid traffic citations until Jan. 1.