If you're the kind of driver who doesn't follow the rules, the 10-kilometre journey from Alexandria to Rose Bay could cost you $851 in parking, speeding and mobile phone fines.
Your bad day starts with an $86 parking ticket. Last financial year, the City of Sydney handed out an average of 750 parking fines per day, by far the most of any council in the NSW, according to Office of State Revenue figures.
It slapped drivers with a whopping $35 million worth of parking fines in 2014-15, more than quadruple the value of fines issued by Waverley Council, which had the second-highest number of fines last financial year.
The good news is both councils are handing our fewer parking fines than five years ago. The City of Sydney has seen a 26 per cent fall in fines compared with 2010-11; Waverley Council, a 32 per cent drop.
By contrast, parking fines are becoming more common in Fairfield and Marrickville, which recorded the largest percentage rises over the past five years. Marrickville Council has seen a 63 per cent jump since 2010-11, issuing 114 fines per day last financial year. Fairfield City Council issued 98 fines per day in 2014-15, a 59 per cent increase from 2010-11.
But let's get back to your bad day. You're finally on the road, heading north on the Eastern Distributor. That flash in the tunnel as you pass through Darlinghurst means you've just copped a ticket from the most lucrative speed camera in NSW. If you're doing 10-20kph above the limit that's $446.
This speed camera caught an average of 50 drivers a day last financial year, bringing in $3.9 million for the state government. That's more than $10,700 a day or nearly $450 an hour.
The Eastern Distributor speed camera continues to set records when it comes to revenue raising. It has been the state's top earner every year since beginning operation in early 2012 and has raked in $14.5 million over four years of operation.
This is nearly 1.5 times more than the camera on Cleveland Street in Moore Park, which is the state's second-most lucrative, as ranked by total earnings in the five years to July 2015, and has been in operation for the full five years.
Your next mistake, wrapping up the trifecta of driving offences, is using your mobile phone while driving, which will cost you $319. In 2014-15, Rose Bay highway patrol officers fined more than 1600 people a total of $513,000 for doing exactly that – the most mobile phone penalties of any local area command in the state.
In 10 kilometres, you've managed to rack up a bill of $851. That's a hefty price tag for a short trip.
But hey, it could have been worse. If you'd also run a red light you'd be coughing up a further $425.
