While the Invercargill City Council frequently awards some drivers for being a "Perfect Parker", it appears there are many many more who can't be afforded the same praise.
Latest ICC parking services figures for April paint an ugly picture of driver behaviour in Invercargill with revenue from infringement notices up 26% from last year to $73,274.
Broken down into specific infringements, incidents of double parking, parking within 6m of an indicated bus stop, on broken yellow lines and on the footpath were all up by over 130%.
It doesn't come cheap either with tardy vehicle owners shelling out $22,200 for unlicensed vehicles, $13,600 for expired Warrant of Fitness', and $11,070 for parking at an expired meter.
Invercargill City Council Parking Enforcement and Mobility Services manager Debbie McCallum said the figures fluctuated from time to time but April was a busy month.
"You can have variations," Mrs McCallum said. "Often it can be due to staffing, when people take leave and that kind of thing.
"Sometimes you can find anomalies within previous years for that reason."
She pointed to March of this year where revenue was down from $89,522 to $62,305.
Other reasons that could have contributed to the increase in April were expired registrations and warrants, the school holidays and, at times, the weather, she said.
Mrs McCallum said parking enforcement officers had noticed that town had been quite busy.
"It has been quite busy lately so it's more important for people to keep moving and give other people a chance to shop in the inner city." One person even got a ticket for parking on a pedestrian crossing.
"In actual fact people will park anywhere they can get away with it." Infringements around schools were particularly prominent, Mrs McCallum said, with some "horrendous" incidents.
"Some people think if they're sitting in their vehicle with the engine running they can park over a pedestrian crossing, over someone's driveway or in a bus stop. Well it doesn't make any difference."
However, inner city drivers also made some bad decisions, particularly in bus stops, including on Sundays.
"It's for all bus services and it's pretty tragic when buses have to sit in the middle of traffic lanes to allow passengers on and off."
Then there are those who have a little trouble keeping their car confined to one parking space.
"Double parking is particularly bad in Esk St. With some people I don't know what they're thinking really."
Mrs McCallum said she had one piece of advice for drivers; "Be considerate." This was particularly important when it came to disabled parking spaces.
"None of us likes rules but we have to abide by them."
