Depends on where you work, I guess.

Apparently - some areas have a lot more bylaw officers working - others might just have one person come by once a day. Kerrisdale only has people come by once a day - while around the Broadway/Cambie area - I saw a lady handing out tickets at 9pm on a stat holiday.

A lot of this depends on the time of day and like you said, location.
Downtown is gonna have more parked cars so expect to see more parking enforcement.
Around 3 pm, expect to see more enforcement officers around busy streets that have no parking between 3 pm and 6 pm.
Same thing for tow trucks.
I was near GM place on Tuesday and saw a bunch of speeding tow trucks. Looked down at the clock and saw it was 5:55 and no parking for the Canucks game starts at 6 pm.

Also, some officers walk, while so drive around. Those that walk are going to be on busier beats while the driving ones will probably have more area to cover and might be around less so expect those officers to less likely chalk/pebble your tires.

Don't forget, enforcement officers eat lunch and take breaks too so expect to see less of them walking around at lunch time.

apparently - I read that all the bylaw officers flock to the main arteries - the ones where there is limited parking between 3-6 - when it's rush hour. So if you're somewhere else that doesn't have rush hour limitations - chances are you have a far smaller chance of getting ticketed if you forget to pay for your meter or you're over the time limit.

unrelated but once I was parked in CoV 2 hour spot with 1/3 of my car sticking into the Resiental Permit only sign

i got ticketed...should've asked if I could get a 33% discount :lawl:

At the place I work in Richmond, they chalk the tires. However, there are cameras and a lot of people get caught and ticketed the moment they leave the parking lot (walk across the street). I've had a lot of customers come in and complain to us about the ticket, even though we have no control over DPS.

I remember in Surrey Central city mall I saw a lot attendant drive around a prius that had external scanners which scan all the cars just by driving slowly in the lanes. It was pretty cool, I saw pictures of everyones plates on his laptop when I peered through his car window.

Happened to me in another DPS lot. I went to a restaurant that was cash only, so I parked the car, walked across to the bank to get cash and came back to go to the restaurant.

Got a ticket and went back to the restaurant and they gave me a receipt. The receipt showed what time I placed the order and what time I paid. The DPS guy I guess was lazy and took his time giving me the ticket. The time of the infraction he listed was right in the middle of the time my receipt said I was in the restaurant. I emailed DPS and they cancelled the ticket.

The restaurant waitress said it happens alot and just to make sure I go into the restaurant for a little bit and then come back out to go to the bank.