DC Drivers Slapped With Ghost Tickets at Bus Stops That No Longer Exist

Drivers across Washington, D.C. are getting hit with $100 tickets for parking in bus zones that stopped existing nearly a year ago, and the confusion is now serious enough that the Council chairman is demanding refunds. The tickets are landing on curbs where the city removed bus service, but where old restrictions and signage never got taken down.

One of the most visible flashpoints is on H Street NE, in front of Muhammad Rashid's business, where a former streetcar route once ran. As reported by WJLA 7News, D.C. residents have received tickets for violating streetcar-era restrictions and for blocking a bus stop that was decommissioned roughly a year earlier. Rashid, who has owned The House of Good on H Street for 15 years, told the station he now spends much of his day checking outside just to avoid getting ticketed.

Another decommissioned bus stop at Pennsylvania Avenue and 14th Street NW generated a similar case: a driver there received a $100 ticket for obstructing an abandoned bus stand and zone, according to the station's report. After the ghost-ticket issue surfaced, the city removed the old 14th Street signage and replaced it with a no-parking-anytime sign and a handicap-parking sign, per the same account.

Two Agencies, One Curb, No Communication

The root of the problem is a jurisdictional split between two District agencies. The Department of Public Works issues parking tickets, while the Department of Transportation handles traffic signs, the outlet notes. A DDOT contact told the station that DPW follows existing signs and issues tickets while they remain posted, and acknowledged that DDOT is behind on removing signage.

That gap traces back to the end of the DC Streetcar itself. The District Department of Transportation permanently shut down the streetcar system on March 31, 2026, ending service along the 2.2-mile H Street NE corridor after a decade of operation, according to WUSA9. Hoodline previously reported on the streetcar's final stop after Council budget cuts forced its closure.

A Budget Cut That Came a Year Early

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson led the legislative decision in late 2025 to strip streetcar operating funds from the District's fiscal year 2026 budget, forcing the line to close a year earlier than DDOT's original March 2027 plan, according to Railpace. The DC Streetcar had cost roughly $200 million to build and required between $10 million and $12 million a year to operate, yet average daily ridership hovered around 2,000 to 2,600 passengers, compared to more than 10,000 on parallel bus routes, per the same outlet's reporting. The line, first envisioned in 2006 as part of a 37-mile citywide network, ultimately operated for a decade as an isolated 2.2-mile stub that never connected directly to a Metrorail station.

Now that the District has no streetcars at all, Mendelson has stepped in after the widespread ticketing issue came to light. He sent a letter to the Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Works requesting that the departments stop issuing tickets and remove obsolete restrictions and signage, WJLA 7News reported. “It's outrageous that people are getting tickets for violations for situations that don't exist,” Mendelson said, adding that the government should not take money from people on false premises and that those who received ghost tickets should be refunded.

Merchants Say Parking Was Already Scarce

For business owners like Rashid, the ghost tickets are landing on top of an existing problem. He said parking shortages are already difficult for area businesses and that merchants need improvements, and he said some area merchants have moved out entirely because there is no parking. DDOT and DPW were both contacted by 7News about the ticketing issue.

The confusion sits inside a much larger enforcement machine. D.C. processed 1,093,880 parking tickets in fiscal year 2025 and 1,201,803 in fiscal year 2024, according to oversight testimony delivered to the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles in April 2026. A 2026 study on ResearchGate notes that DPW employs a dedicated workforce of 222 parking enforcement officers, supervisors, and coordinators patrolling city streets, which helps explain how quickly manual patrols can catch drivers parked at legacy sign locations.

The Burden Falls on Drivers, For Now

Under existing DMV regulations, drivers who receive an invalid or erroneous citation must file a formal contestation within 30 days of issuance or risk having the fine automatically double. That means that even as Mendelson pushes for blanket refunds and faster sign removal, individual drivers currently still bear the responsibility of disputing ghost tickets themselves unless city leaders put a formal, automated dismissal process in place.

This is not the first time DDOT's signage practices have drawn complaints this year. In July, DDOT faced backlash in Anacostia after installing new no-parking signs overnight for a bus project without advance notice, triggering immediate tickets for residents and small business owners, as Hoodline reported at the time. The city's Clear Lanes program, which uses automated cameras on buses and street infrastructure to catch vehicles in bus zones, has only heightened the stakes for drivers trying to keep track of which restrictions are still active.