Most downtown parking metered by the city is free on Sundays.

Parking tickets

If you leave your car at a city meter and take a cab or bus after a night of drinking and you get a parking ticket, you can get your ticket waived if you provide a receipt for your ride, including time and date.

Towing

In Texas, towing regulations are handled under the authority of the TDLR.  A business (including an apartment complex) may have a relationship with a towing company who is able to tow away unauthorized vehicles on the business owner's behalf.  With some exceptions, businesses will have a red and white "towing enforced" sign that includes the details of the towing company and the time and which towing may occur.  These signs don't have to be posted up in front of every space for which it is enforced; it may just be a single sign at the front of the lot.

If you suspect your car has been towed, look for such a sign, ask the business if they have a relationship with a towing company, or call the police, to whom towing companies must report their tows.  The police will have the name and location of the vehicle storage facility where your car has been taken and at what time it was towed.  If your car was towed from a business that's technically outside of city limits, you should also check with the Travis County Sherriff's Office.

Texas has a statewide maximum for light duty (less than 10,000 lb) private property tows of $250.  Tow operators and vehicle storage facilities operate independently and are subject to different regulations (even if they have the same owner), so there may be fees from the storage facility stacked on top of the tow charge, but for typical cases, your total should be in this ballpark if you recover your vehicle within 24 hours.  If it's much more than that (e.g., because the tow operator has tried to assess a charge per mile towed), then the tow operator is in violation of TDLR regulations.

If your car is towed at night and you recover it within 24 hours and the storage facility has assessed an extra day's charge (one charge for the night that it was towed, and another day's charge for when the clock passed midnight several hours later), then the storage facility is in violation of TDLR regulations.  This does not apply to any charges after the first 24 hours.

If your car is towed just after midnight and you recover it in the afternoon or that evening after 12 hours but before midnight that day (so between roughly 12–24 hours after it was towed) and the storage facility has assessed an extra day's charge for failure recover your vehicle within 12 hours, then the storage facility is in violation of TDLR regulations.

If the storage facility never actually assesses additional bogus fees against you but does threaten to do so, then the storage facility is in violation of TDLR regulations.

In any dispute, make sure you have adequate documentation, such as voice or video recording and any paperwork that concerns the tow or your car's recovery from the storage facility.  TDLR regulations place a limit such that you must file a dispute about the tow within a 14-day window after it has occurred, and you are entitled to a hearing.  The scope of the hearing is limited only to determining whether there was probable cause for the tow and whether the tow fees were properly assessed.  The process for disputes about charges assessed by the storage facility (as with the bogus extra charges mentioned above) is less well-defined, but you should probably treat it as if you still have only a 14-day window to dispute it; ideally, you should try to contact someone about your options as soon as possible.

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