The show has three segments, out of which one or all of them may be used in any particular episode:
- Ticketing — Officers search out vehicles with expired parking meters or otherwise illegally parked.
- Booting — A patrol van roams the streets with special image-scanning equipment that reads vehicle license plates. The plate numbers are run through the city's database, and those that are flagged for outstanding warrants get booted.
- Impound Lot — The clerks there have to contend with angry car owners trying to get their vehicles back, but may be hampered by not enough money or bureaucratic red tape.
Parking Wars is subject to one or more of the following tropes, including but not limited to:
- By-the-Book Cop: Most of the show's officers may be considered this.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Very prevalent.
- Dude, Where's Our Car?: There have been a few instances where an impounded car got misplaced, and the hapless driver had to wander around the lot looking for it.
- Just Doing My Job: You could make a Drinking Game for Parking Wars out of this line.
- Meddlesome Patrolman/Obstructive Bureaucrat: What the city employees are usually regarded as, according to those on the receiving end of a ticket or a car boot.
- Parking Problems: The entire premise of the show.
- Pop-Up Trivia: Little blurbs may appear explaining the finer details of city ordinances, as they relate to the ongoing situation.
- Traffic Wardens: Unusually, the show depicts their side of the story, and how the vast majority of the cars they ticket are parked illegally or in an unsafe manner, or both.
- Wacky Sound Effect: Used frequently to spice up the conversations.
