Chicago parking meters · the math
Skip the meter for 2 hours. What are the odds a ticket writer comes down your block?
We lined up 1,999 metered blocks from the City's meter inventory with every meter ticket written on them, hour by hour. Then we checked our odds against what actually happened from January 1, 2026 to June 12, 2026.
The math in one line
Chance × fine is what skipping costs on average. Two hours at a $2.50/hour meter is $5.00. Against a $50 fine, that only comes out ahead while the chance stays under 10%. At $4.75/hour it's under 19%. Averaged across the city, the City's meter prices and its ticket odds land close together — which is why the answer depends entirely on the block.
Average chance for a 2-hour weekday stay, by start time, across every metered space.
Where it isn't close
The most-worked metered blocks with 10 or more spaces, weekday 11 AM–1 PM:
| Block | Spaces | Chance | Chance × fine | Meter, 2 hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2100 S Archer Ave | 128 | 54% | $27.10 | $5.00 |
| 200 W Cermak Rd | 29 | 49% | $24.70 | $5.00 |
| 1400 E 53rd St | 46 | 39% | $19.30 | $5.00 |
| 2300 S Wentworth Ave | 31 | 38% | $19.16 | $5.00 |
| 1600 E 55th St | 35 | 36% | $18.16 | $5.00 |
| 2200 S Wentworth Ave | 26 | 36% | $18.02 | $5.00 |
| 1100 S Canal St | 39 | 35% | $24.45 | $9.50 |
| 1300 E 53rd St | 57 | 33% | $16.59 | $5.00 |
| 500 W Roosevelt Rd | 30 | 32% | $22.64 | $9.50 |
| 1900 W Ogden Ave | 29 | 32% | $16.17 | $5.00 |
Look up your block
Every metered block we could match to the City's ticket records.
Did the odds hold up?
We set the odds from 2025 tickets, then adjusted them for how 2024's odds held up the next year — a block worked nearly every afternoon one year tends to drift back toward the middle. Then we compared them with January 1, 2026 to June 12, 2026, which the odds never saw:
| We said | Block-hours | Average we said | What happened in 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0%–2% | 53,309 | 1.7% | 1.1% |
| 2%–5% | 38,832 | 3.7% | 3.5% |
| 5%–10% | 28,504 | 7.5% | 7.2% |
| 10%–20% | 28,413 | 14.1% | 14.3% |
| 20%–30% | 7,194 | 24.3% | 24.2% |
| 30%–50% | 3,003 | 36.3% | 33.1% |
| 50%–70% | 138 | 52.7% | 51.5% |
What this can't tell you
- It counts tickets, not walks.We only know a ticket writer was on the block when they wrote a meter ticket there. If they walked by and every car had paid, there's no record — so the real chance someone walks by is at least this high.
- It's the block, not your car. A ticket writer working a block usually gets every unpaid car, but not always both sides or every space.
- A ticket you don't pay doesn't stay $50. It doubles — and nearly 1 in 5 paid Chicago tickets were paid at the doubled price (2022–2024).
- Paying is the only sure thing.Holidays, events and any meter-hour or price change after the City's meter inventory aren't in here.
Got a meter ticket anyway?
Expired-meter tickets contested by mail were dismissed 68% of the time — 87,133 decided cases, tickets issued 2023–2025, from City of Chicago Department of Administrative Hearings records. Autopilot America contests your tickets for you.
See how it worksSources: City of Chicago Department of Finance meter inventory (February 4, 2026) and parking citation records for 2024–2025 and January 1, 2026 to June 12, 2026, obtained by Autopilot America under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. Meter tickets written by the City's walking ticket writers; police-written tickets aren't counted. Fines are $50 outside the central business district and $70 inside it. Off-street lots and summer-only meters are left out. Updated September 12, 2026.