If you paid for parking and return to your car to find a ticket on your windshield, double check it before paying the fee.
Since January 1st, 2019, the City of Kelowna has issued 8,025 parking tickets. That’s almost 120 tickets per day.
Parking Operations Coordinator, Andrew Rolston told AM 1150 in an email that out of those 8,025 tickets, 321 of them “were voided due to plate entry errors.”
“The most common error is the alphabetical letter O entered when the plate is actually a numerical 0. This can be compounded when customers use the app for payment, as the plate information is stored and can be used repeatedly until it is corrected in the app.”
This means that one person could receive multiple tickets without knowing their license plate number is wrong on their PayByPhone parking app profile.
According to ICBC, license plates in British Columbia do not contain the letter O and generally do not contain I, Q or U. These letters were left out to avoid confusing them with 1, 0 and V back when tickets were hand written.
Rolston says the City is exploring solutions with their equipment suppliers, whereby a software program would consider common errors.
The City recognizes human error and will continue to void tickets, as necessary, with proof of payment.