x
Breaking News
More () »

Avoiding this ticket is as easy as reading a sign

Like most tickets, avoiding these $50 bad boys can be avoided by following simple instructions. Last year the city gave out $7 million worth of tickets.
Credit: Rodriguez, Jacob

DENVER — Signs are posted all around Denver and starting Tuesday it's crucial you read them.

Street sweepers will be rolling through neighborhoods beginning on April 3. Different streets have various times of when people are not allowed to park on them. Violators could be slapped with a $50 fine.

Around 137,000 tickets were handed out last year yielding $7 million, according to Denver Public Works' spokesperson Heather Burke. While this number seems high, Burke said it's actually down two percent from 2016. She said the money collected will be put toward the city's general fund.

Despite the hundreds of thousands of tickets handed out, Burke said the goal isn't to rake in money. It's actually to stop pollutants from getting into the air and water.

"The overall goal of the city is to improve our water quality by 2020, you know, and the main goal is that, eventually, people can use the South Platte River for recreational purposes," Burke said. "Street sweeping is a universal practice and, really, it's been shown as the best way to remove those pollutants so that they don't get in our rivers and streams."

In the dirt and debris picked up throughout last year, the city found elements like mercury, chloride and lead, according to Denver Public Works.

"Last year, Denver Public Works swept enough pollutants off the streets to fill Coors Field with a pile of dirt and debris stacked almost 12 feet high," Burke wrote in a press release.

If you need a little help to remind you which days are street sweeping days, you can sign up for reminders through Pocketgov, Denver's mobile web application, or call 311 and ask for "no parking" sticker reminders for calendars.

Before You Leave, Check This Out