From early morning to sunset, hikers’ cars fill both sides of Golfcrest Drive at the base of the city of San Diego’s highest peak, Cowles Mountain in San Carlos.And while Cowles boasts the city’s highest elevation, it also has the highest number of parking tickets issued to drivers who fail to “cramp” their wheels.San Diego’s Municipal Code requires drivers who park on streets with grades of 3% or more to turn their wheels toward or away from the curb, depending on whether the vehicle is pointed downhill or uphill. Nowhere else in the city are parking officers more likely to issue violations than at Cowles Mountain, which has been the top spot for the violations since 2025.Parking officers have issued 889 citations there since January, according to city data. That’s 367 more than at La Jolla Shores Drive, the second-highest location for wheel-cramping tickets this year. The 889 wheel-cramping citations issued on Golfcrest Drive so far this year have generated an estimated $79,565 in fines, based on the city’s $86.50 penalty for the violation.The rise in wheel-cramping violations at Cowles Mountain began in 2024.In 2023, Golfcrest did not rank among the city’s top 10 locations. That year, parking enforcement officers issued 155 wheel-cramping citations, ranking Golfcrest 11th citywide.That changed in 2024. The number of wheel-cramping tickets soared, climbing nearly fourfold to 572 citations, making it the third-highest spot behind Juan Street in Old Town and La Jolla Shores Drive.
In 2025, 1,128 wheel-cramping citations were issued on Golfcrest Drive, 225 more than at Juan Street in Old Town, the second-highest location.From January through August 1, Golfcrest remains at the top of the list for wheel-cramping tickets.While hikers at Cowles Mountain received the highest number of tickets, parking enforcement officers throughout San Diego have been cracking down on drivers who fail to curb their wheels.Last year, parking officers issued 19,086 wheel-cramping citations, the highest number of parking violations in at least five years, resulting in $1,565,571 in fines.
So, what is driving the increase? San Diego Police Lieutenant Cesar Jimenez says it has more to do with staffing than anything else, and in no way is it a response to the city’s tenuous finances.“While we cannot know the exact cause of an increase in citations, we can say there was an increase in the number of parking enforcement officers in recent years. In 2024, there were 55 parking enforcement officers; currently, we have 74,” Lt. Jimenez wrote in an email to Times of San Diego.“San Diego Police Department officers and parking enforcement officers have not been directed to increase enforcement to increase revenue nor to hit any type of enforcement quotas, which are illegal,” added Jimenez.
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