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Guides and research: how towing works in Madison

Plain-language guides for people who were towed, and the audits, reports and court rulings behind them. Each summary is ours; follow the link to read the original.

Guides

Madison winter parking and snow emergenciesMost Madison street tows in winter come from two rules in the same ordinance: alternate-side parking at night from November 15 to March 15, and declared snow emergencies. The ordinance has not changed, but the City has been changing how it enforces it.
Private-lot tows in Wisconsin: signs, the police call, and the chargesWisconsin's private-property towing rules are short. Three of them carry most of the weight: where the signs must be, the call to the police before the tow, and the state maximums for the charges.

Reports, audits, studies and news

Newest first. Government reports are public records; the others belong to their authors, so we link to them and do not post copies.

Parking: Part IV (towing from rental property)

Guide · Tenant Resource Center (Madison) · Undated (about 2015-16) · Covers: Madison

A Madison tenant nonprofit's explanation, for renters, of the private-tow rules as they stood under the 2015 emergency rules. Some details differ from the permanent rule: for example, it describes signs at the entrance or at the spaces, while the permanent rule (Trans 319.04(2)) requires both.

Why it matters: One of the few local plain-language explanations of the rules.

A secondary source written before some current amounts; the official rule text is in the tool.

Tenant Resource Center (not an official copy)

Last checked October 12, 2026.