50 million bucks.

That’s how much Chicago Parking Meters, LLC has billed the City of Chicago for lost parking meter revenue.

This is mainly due to an excessive number of drivers utilizing handicap plates and disabled placards to park for free as well as for when metered spots get closed down for street repairs, street festivals, utility work, etc.

Crain’s Chicago Business has put together a very illustrative and informative graphic explaining the who, what, where, when and how.

Perhaps the most shocking metric is the number of metered spaces downtown which go unpaid due to free disabled parking. It’s a nearly 1 to 1 ratio of paid parking to free parking in the city’s most expensive area for metered parking at $5.75 per hour.

Other areas of the city shows substantially less free disabled parking with the Northside coming in a distant second with a 1 to 6 ratio.

The graphic certainly helps illustrate how crappy a job Mayor Daley’s administration did negotiating the parking meter lease deal.

Check it out at Crain’s Chicago Business, “The $49,705,033 parking dispute.”