Maryland drivers get the most DC parking tickets

Local legend has it that Maryland drivers are the worst in the District. Seriously, there’s a whole Twitter account and some significant reddit/Quora rants dedicated to this observation.

I wish you DC Pedestrians would learn how to cross the street in a way that is more respectful to cars.

— MD Driver in DC 🚙📳🚳🚷🏁 (@MD_Driver_in_DC) April 21, 2016

And where do you turn when you’re curious whether this kind of cultural observation is supported by the data? To DataLensDC, of course! Kate Rabinowitz launched the website in July 2015 to visualize trends and changes in our fair city.
Her most recent visualization looks at D.C. parking ticket data from 2015 and breaks it down by state license plate. And who gets the most D.C. parking tickets, you ask? That dubious honor goes to the drivers from Maryland. In fact, Rabinowitz found, Maryland drivers received 120,000 more parking tickets than D.C. drivers in 2015. Lol.
Here’s what the breakdown looks like:

As Rabinowitz goes on to point out in a Washingtonian piece, though, this doesn’t necessarily mean Maryland drivers are the worst in D.C. (Sorry, excited @MD_Driver_in_DC followers). “More Maryland drivers may drive through DC than actual DC residents,” she writes.
Read on here to learn more about parking ticket numbers in D.C., and the rather high number of D.C. tickets accrued by cars with West Coast plates.