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We all hear how red cars stand out to radar-wielding highway patrolmen, making them more likely to get hit with speeding tickets or other moving violations.

But what about parking tickets? Do red cars stand out more to parking ticket officers? If not, which car color does get the greatest number of parking tickets and why?

Using NYC’s 2018 parking ticket data, we’ve identified the vehicle colors that get the most parking tickets. What we found might surprise you.

Brown Cars

Accounting for the popularity of each vehicle color in the state of New York, we see that brown vehicles are nearly three times as likely to receive a parking ticket than the average vehicle.

What’s the story there? Brown seems like one of the most inconspicuous colors. But when we dig in further, we can see that over two thirds of tickets given to brown vehicles are given to vans and delivery vehicles – probably because of UPS trucks illegally parking all over the roads as they deliver thousands of packages. 

White Cars

Following a similar logic, we can see that the second-most likely vehicle color to receive a parking ticket – white – suffers from the same problem.  Over 50% of parking tickets issued to white vehicles were given to vans, delivery vehicles, and refrigerator trucks. Looks like FedEx is trying to keep up with their earth-toned competitor.

Black and Grey Cars

When we remove vans and delivery vehicles from our analysis, we see that black and gray vehicles are more likely to receive parking tickets than other colors. So much for trying to blend in with the streets!

Yellow Cars

After the grayscale colors, yellow cars are the next most likely victims of parking tickets, due to the notoriously rule-bending driving and parking tendencies of the ubiquitous NY yellow cabs.

In fact, the data shows that 43% of parking tickets given to yellow vehicles were given to taxis. Surprisingly, school bus drivers were on the receiving end of over a tenth of yellow vehicle parking tickets, proving that even the noble cause of delivering children to their places of education doesn’t make you above the city’s Draconian parking laws.

Finally, when we exclude both service vehicles and taxis, we get a clear picture of which car colors tend to get everyday drivers into parking trouble. The bright, sporty, flashy colors – your reds, oranges, and yellows — are actually noticeably less likely to receive parking tickets than more common “blend in with the crowd” colors. Perhaps people who purchase and drive these brightly colored vehicles are more likely to take extra care with their cars by parking them off-street and in garages.

Regardless of the color of your car, if you’ve received a parking ticket in NYC, you can use WinIt to dispute it risk free. If your ticket is upheld, you can pay right in the WinIt app. If the ticket is dismissed, you only pay WinIt half of the original ticket fee.

WinIt also offers parking and traffic ticket solutions to vehicle fleets and other businesses. Learn more about how WinIt can save your company time and money!