It's everyone's worst nightmare – you come back to your car to a dreaded yellow ticket slapped on your windscreen.
Last year in Cardiff parking wardens handed out tens of thousands of parking fines totaling more than £2m.
Over the 2018-19 financial year Cardiff council parking attendants dished out a total of 69,846 fines – the equivalent of 191 per day.
Of those that have been paid so far the council made a grand total of £2,161,211. That's equivalent to £5,921 a day.
Here's what the law says about where you can leave your vehicle:
The data, obtained through a freedom of information request, also reveals which roads brought in the most money, the ones where you're most likely to be hit with a ticket, and the most common reasons why wardens issued tickets.
And it shows that while the council made more than £2m in revenue last year – up from £1.9m the previous financial year – 7,531 fines from last year are still outstanding and a further a 7,641 out of 14,404 issued have been successfully appealed.
Which streets made the most cash for the council?
Churchill Way was the street which pulled in the most cash in paid fines yielding £33,275 from 1,276 tickets.
But it isn't the only big earner in Cardiff. Museum Avenue in Cathays Park also made more than £30,000 and roads in residential areas such as Roath and Canton brought in tens of thousands each.
Meanwhile 40 Cardiff roads generated no revenue through parking fines.
The table below shows the 21 roads that made the most money in revenue over the last financial year.
| Churchill Way, city centre | £33,275.12 |
| Museum Avenue, Cathays Park | £32,869.81 |
| King Edward VII Avenue, Cathays Park | £28,450.59 |
| Heath Park main car park, Cardiff | £27,624.16 |
| Windsor Place, city centre | £25,869.51 |
| Tredegar Street, city centre | £23,817.88 |
| Fitzhamon Embankment, Riverside | £22,656.27 |
| Bute Crescent, Cardiff Bay | £20,763.00 |
| Mount Stuart Square, Butetown | £20,699.00 |
| Inverness Place, Roath | £18,950.00 |
| Albany Road, Roath | £18,676.53 |
| MacKintosh Place, Roath | £18,600.06 |
| Greyfriars Place, city centre | £18,555.41 |
| Charles Street, city centre | £18,102.00 |
| John Street, Butetown | £17,785.00 |
| St Andrew's Crescent, Cathays Park | £17,447.62 |
| Canal Parade, Butetown | £17,217.41 |
| Wharton Street, city centre | £17,084.00 |
| Severn Road car park, Canton | £16,456.00 |
| City Road, Roath | £16,108.34 |
| Hamilton Street, Pontcanna | £15,753.53 |
The top 10 reasons for parking tickets being issued
No permit displayed - 19,756
Parking in a restricted street - 13,658
Parking without payment - 7,670
Parking next to a dropped kerb - 4,750
Parking after payment has expired - 4,717
Loading in a restricted street - 4,194
Parking in a disabled space without a badge - 3610
Parking longer than permitted - 3,261
Invalid, expired, or part of permit displayed - 2,496
Wrong class of vehicle - 1,485
How many were handed out on your road?
This interactive map allows you to see how much money was collected by the council in parking fines in your road.
Because of the amount of tickets issued on some roads, for example Churchill Way, it might not be possible to see how many were issued or the reasons for the tickets.
What does Cardiff council say?
A spokesman for Cardiff council said: “The income funds the operational cost of parking and enforcement and any surplus or deficit is transferred to a parking reserve account.
"This is then used to support public transport services, off-street parking, and highway improvements in accordance with section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulations Act 1984.
“The parking reserve account has helped to support a number of improvements including installing disabled bays, implementing the new 20mph areas in the city, keep clear zones by schools and safe access to school schemes, highway improvements and bus lanes, cycling partnerships, the operation to remove off-road bikes from public land, upgrading car parks including pay and display facilities, and implementing the moving traffic offences scheme.”
