Aussies slapped with bizarre and baffling fines in 2023 have gone to extreme lengths to challenge the decisions, while new road rules and new technology has caught out drivers breaking the road rules.
Click through for some of the stories we covered this year.
A mysterious printed card with a warning for a New Zealand resident has left him and others puzzled after it was left on his car windscreen, accusing him of bad parking, and threatening to key his vehicle.
The size and appearance of a business card, on the front it reads: "You. Yes you. You park badly and you should feel bad. Stop. Use the bus, get a bike, or get lessons. Preferably all three."
It was simply signed "sincerely, every other person on the road".
On the back, it took on a more sinister tone, "Next time you will be keyed. Thank you."
At a loss to understand what the card meant, and who was behind it, the driver posted photos of his parked car, an EV Nissan Leaf, to a Tauranga community group.
"Who's the a...... giving these out? And can anyone figure out what the person thought was wrong with my parking?" the car owner said.
He checked that his car had not been keyed, he said.
"I would have been making a police report straight away if that did happen and checking what CCTV was available.
"You would have to be demented to think keying someone's car is a proportional response to bad parking."
Some commenters thought anger over poor parking was a particular issue in Tauranga.
"It screams Tauranga behaviour," said one.
Parking – or lack of parking – is the talk of Tauranga currently, as traffic congestion and construction have led to parking woes in the city, giving rise to tougher parking enforcement from privately contracted companies.
A Sydney dad was slapped with a $201 parking fine earlier this year and lost two demerit points, despite not leaving his car during a school dropoff.
Jickey Mathew dropped his son and daughter off one morning in February in a "no parking zone", telling 9News he was aware of the road rules.
An image showed Mathew's car stopped outside the front of the school with his children getting out of the car.
"I was there for less than a minute, I didn't get out of the car at all," he said.
In Queensland, hundreds of drivers were incorrectly slogged with double demerit points for seatbelt offences.
More than 1840 motorists were hit with double demerit points for 2500 incorrectly issued seatbelt sanctions.
In Victoria, new road rules were introduced in July, fining drivers for being caught with mobile phones.
New AI technology has been introduced to catch drivers on their phones, with fines being implemented from mid-year.
Drivers caught face a $577 fine along with four demerit points.
In Adelaide, police launched a secret crackdown on road users, targetting jaywalkers.
Patrols swarmed a popular crossing at Adelaide Railway Station, catching unsuspecting pedestrians for jaywalking — crossing the road against the signals or when it's not safe to do so.
Fines for a range of pedestrian offences cost $156.
One of the most contentious road rules in NSW reared its head in March, after a Sydney man was fined for parking in his driveway.
Angus Kelleher said he had copped a $283 fine for the offence despite his car being over the pathway outside his home only "ever so slightly".
Under NSW law, a driver is not permitted to stop on or across a driveway.
Also in NSW, a woman was fined for holding her daughter's toy Bluey phone while driving in Sydney's Inner West.
The woman was caught by a mobile phone camera on February 10.
She was sent a fine in the mail for $362 and five demerit points.
A Sydney woman delivered a warning to other drivers after she racked up almost $900 in parking fines due to a road rule she had never heard of.
Cherie Frankel was fined three times for "parallel parking close to dividing line/strip" - with each fine worth $283, despite there being no parking signs in the area.
"I had no idea this was a rule and everybody I have shown has had no idea," she said.
A Sydney man received a $120 parking ticket for overstaying his time in a parking bay by 12 minutes while his partner Carly Earl was in the delivery room giving birth to their new baby girl Hazel.
"If I wasn't still technically in labour, I may have just given birth (at the time of receiving the fine)," Carly told 9News.
The parking challenge was initially declined by Revenue NSW, but was cancelled after a 9News broadcast of the story.
Two men were this year fined a total of $15,500 after posting a video of themselves illegally driving through two protected environmental areas north-west of the Gold Coast.
The men drove a green four-wheel-drive and a dune buggy through Plunkett Conservation Park and Wickham Timer Reserve.
Both men were fined $7000 and ordered to pay $750 in costs.
A Sydney man who went to court to challenge a parking fine he received for breaking a little-known road rule had a win, with the magistrate dismissing the charge.
Damian Seagar had been parking in the same spot outside his inner city home in Erskineville for years when, out of the blue, he got a $362 fine for parking within 10 metres of an intersection with no traffic lights.
"One of my arguments was that it's a signage issue," he said.
In Melbourne, a council parking inspector sparked disbelief after handing out fines while appearing to break his own rules.
A photo shows the Boroondara City Council ranger's car parked in a loading zone on a Friday evening in June.
The council confirmed officers can park their work vehicle in loading zones to perform their duties.
In Queensland, drivers coughed up a record $400 million in fines in the 2022-23 financial year, an increase of $100 million on the previous year.
The State Penalties Enforcement Registry said that the record result coincided with a "Brisbane blitz" with enforcement officers targeting suburbs including Chermside, Nundah, Oxley, Mount Gravatt and Tingalpa.
To accommodate the lack of space and other safety issues, Sydney's Inner West Council has marked some bays on part of the footpath.
It creates more room for traffic to flow but disability advocates say the spaces create accessibility issues.
And in Sydney, a cryptic road rule led to a news crew having their car wrongly towed.
9News reporter Eddy Meyer was on Kent Street in Sydney's CBD in October with a cameraman and assistant ahead of an interview.
The team pulled the Nine crew car up, examined the sign with its eight different directives, and got a ticket from the machine.
But when they came back after the interview, the car was gone.
It turns out the confusion stemmed from an addition to the clearway section of the sign, due to the public holiday in NSW.
The sign read: "Special Event Clearway 2pm-9pm Sat 30 Sept, Sun 1 Oct, Mon 2 Oct" - which was interpreted that the clearway was for 2pm-9pm on each of those days.
However, the towing company had interpreted it as being in place from 2pm on Saturday until 9pm on Monday.
Transport for NSW later confirmed the news crew and other drivers whose cars were towed were in the right.