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Unlucky Parkers: NYC issues 16% more tickets on Friday 13th

Date: 1/13/2023

  • Fridays are among the worst days for parking tickets in NYC — averaging 50k tickets per day

  • Friday the 13th is unluckier than other Fridays - with 16% more tickets issued on Friday the 13th vs. other Fridays.

Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13. Hotels and office buildings often exclude the 13th floor on their elevator buttons, some airplane passengers avoid sitting on the 13th row, and party hosts sometimes avoid having 13 people on their guest list. These superstitions are heightened when the 13th of a month falls on a Friday. Given that the day is considered to be unlucky, are you also more likely to get a parking ticket in New York City on Friday the 13th?

We’ve analyzed over 5 million tickets issued in New York City

Fridays (and Thursdays) are the worst days for Parking tickets in NYC, with ~50k issued on average. Notably, the “luckiest day” of the week is Sunday — which gets only around 10K tickets.

Friday the 13th’s are actually unluckier than other Fridays

There have been five “Friday the 13ths” since 2019 (1 in 2019, 2 in 2020, 1 in 2021, and 1 in 2022). On average, NYC issued 58,378 parking tickets on each the last five Friday’s the 13ths.

Friday 13th vs. All Other Fridays

When comparing against all other Fridays, Friday the 13th looks unluckier — with 16% more tickets issued on Friday the 13th than all other Fridays.

Friday 13th vs. the Fridays Before and After

Now, Friday 13th naturally excludes some big holidays like - Christmas (when tickets drop to plummet) — so let’s compare ticket volume of a typical Friday the 13th vs. the Friday immediately before and after.

While we see a smaller effect, it appears that once again the fabled day is actually slightly unluckier — with the Friday before seeing only 55,221 daily tickets on average (5% fewer) and the Friday after seeing 57,059 daily tickets (2% fewer).

Conclusion

Fridays are among the worst days for NYC parking tickets, and it appears that Friday the 13th is actually among the most unlucky Fridays to park. (Is this statistically significant difference? Probably not — but better not try your luck on day like today!)

If you do end up getting a ticket on Friday the 13th (like the ~62,711 unlucky NYer’s who got one last year), you can pay it quickly here at Pay NYC Fines, and sign up for text alerts for future tickets.


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