Parking tickets will cost more

Tickets for parking violations in the city of Los Angeles will cost $5 more starting next month, after a vote taken Tuesday by the City Council.

Under the new fee schedule, motorists will have to pay $40 for parking in a loading zone, $45 for parking more than 18 inches from the curb, $55 for parking on street-sweeping day and $75 for parking in a red zone. Tickets automatically double when they are paid late.

Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who heads the council’s Transportation Committee, described the costlier parking tickets as critical to the city’s effort to balance the budget. Greuel and her colleagues last hiked the fines in 2006, when parking tickets went up by $5 across the board.