TheHighlandHowler: Why is the "display" necessary? Our local RR station parking lot has pay stations where you key in your spot number, pay, and continue on your way, (not return to the car to display the tag/receipt/whatever).

Mine as well. I actually wasn't going to make it back in time, so I looked at the pay stub and say an automated number for extending your time over the phone. We live in the information age, why should I have to display the physical proof of payment in my windshield?

I live in Butler PA (#7 town in the USA!) and our parking ticket chick is a biatch who doesn't tip in restaurants.

^{/or so I hear}

Shvetz: TheHighlandHowler: Why is the "display" necessary? Our local RR station parking lot has pay stations where you key in your spot number, pay, and continue on your way, (not return to the car to display the tag/receipt/whatever).

Mine as well. I actually wasn't going to make it back in time, so I looked at the pay stub and say an automated number for extending your time over the phone. We live in the information age, why should I have to display the physical proof of payment in my windshield?

Because that way, they can write more tickets, which make more money.

Can you not use your phone on these meters in the states? We just text the number on the machine with how much we want and then hit print to get the receipt.

FTFA: "-drivers, who must walk from their parked car to the multispace meter, print a parking receipt, and return to the vehicle to put the slip in the window." I wouldn't do that if I was parking to go to the gym. I ain't going out of my way to suit some civicass's idea of good govt. I'd park outside the metered zone and WALK to my destination.

^{The first step to replace the meters will involve a trial run this spring testing 100 new single-space meters that will replace a few multispace devices in Brookline's busiest areas,such as Coolidge Corner and Brookline Village, Kleckner said.}
-=-

How about drawing on past experience of single spaced meter that you had before? I would speculate some council member's brother owns the company that does these trial runs.

It's like in my town, the mayor had her brothers sign company replace almost all of the street signs in the town. Only a fraction needed to be repaired that they replaced. They didn't even fix some of the bad one's.
That mayor went on to seek higher offices.

I just skimmed, so maybe I missed it.

No one's mentioned that they probably could've just disabled all of the meters, stopped charging for parking and been in better shape financially than they are now?

i like the multispace parking because i didn't have to carry around quarters.

but since i don't go over to brookline that often anymore, i don't care.

skinink: Farking Brookline, MA, the second People's Republic in Massachusetts, right behind Cambridge.

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And Brookline is one of those well to do communities... the old rich residents of Brookline...

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Brookline is probably the opposite of the People's Republic, honestly. We've got the oldest country club in the nation, so old it's just called "The Country Club," and you're comparing us to those lefties across the river?

Jeeves? Laugh at him for me.

Amazing how many people here are angry that they have to walk thirty or forty feet TWICE!!

We have meters like the ones in TFA in downtown DC and I absolutely love them. It makes it so much easier to expense my parking when I just have to save the little slips and submit them to the accounting department at the end of the month. Plus I don't have to carry around $30 worth of farking change if I need to go to a few different places in the same day.

And if walking back to your car is such a big deal then you have bigger problems to worry about, and maybe you should be at the doctor and not downtown. It's not like the farking thing is a mile away... It's like 40 feet.

Residents have complained that the meters are confusing, slow, and are particularly burdensome for older drivers, who must walk from their parked car to the multispace meter, print a parking receipt, and return to the vehicle to put the slip in the window, even in inclement weather.

The moran who thought this would be a good idea should have to pay to replace them.

The salesman should be ranked right up there with the one selling refrigerators to Eskimos.

namatad: Carth: Can you not use your phone on these meters in the states? We just text the number on the machine with how much we want and then hit print to get the receipt.

link please
because that sounds so high tech, you must be an alien from the future

They just finished upgrading it to smartphones I can't find a link about the oldschool texting version.

Salt Lick Steady: But Kleckner said the town also saw a significant drop in revenue from parking tickets, in part because the multispace meters make it more difficult for enforcement officers to do their jobs.

50% of my favorite dreams involve choking a meter maid to death, so bravo, Brookline.

/"enforcement officers"?
//really?

Meter maid is the most irrationally-hated duty in the world.

They're just enforcing the rules, hater.

namatad: these were the best thing that chicago ever did.
1) you can pay with credit cards
2) can fit more cars in the same stretch of road
3) guests can always find a parking space because the cheap bastards dont park on the street anymore

Except all the revenue goes to the people who bought the citizens' parking rights for 99 years.

The city spent the $1.2 billion purchase price in 2 years.

They have had these in Europe for years. They really are not difficult. In fact, by waiting for these newer generation meters, they have been even more user friendly than those I used when living in France.

This includes the prepay parking lot kiosks too.

Rufus Lee King: We'll fix that up.

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Small town, not much to do in the evenin'.

I'm not sure where they have been installed, but there is a system that works like EZPass. You get a little sensor for you window. You have a payment card. You swipe your little sensor and it starts the meter. You take the card (which has your electronic money with you) so there is nothing of real value in the car to steal).

namatad: jaytkay: namatad: these were the best thing that chicago ever did.
1) you can pay with credit cards
2) can fit more cars in the same stretch of road
3) guests can always find a parking space because the cheap bastards dont park on the street anymore

Except all the revenue goes to the people who bought the citizens' parking rights for 99 years.

The city spent the $1.2 billion purchase price in 2 years.

wait what????
we got the revenue in a lump sum.
and to be honest, sure we got tipped off, but on the other hand, we now have available parking
tada

Yes, but the city could have done it themselves, and the money would stay in town.

It seems the people that have problems with these live in towns that did a terrible job installing them.
Sacramento has them, and they're nice. Take cash, coins, and credit. I've never had to stand in line to use one, they let you add time over the phone, and they won't let you pay for time on Sundays, or during times when parking is free (i.e. free parking starts at 5. If you pay at 4:30, it won't let you buy more than a half hour).

City has also reported increased revenue from them, without raising fees.

Atlanta put these damn things in & they are a nightmare. Had TWO attendants helping me with a machine one day that wouldn't take cash OR print a receipt for my credit card. They said I was fine without it. But, I still had a ticket when I came back out to my car. And to fight it, you have to physically go downtown to do paperwork. And use another machine to park your car. Cost me $30 to park for two hours.

brookgo: Interesting. Every Chicagoan I know hates the process. The meters only accept credit cards and coins, and waiting outside in a line during a Chicago winter is one of the least pleasant things in the world.

And to make matters worse, they take forever to process your credit card. I don't know why we can't pay with our cell phones like the rest of the civilized world.

Silly idea, why not use the black box system some states use for toll roads?
Meter reads car with box is parked in its space, automatically bills you.

We have these in Christchurch, NZ and they work really well. Coin (we use coins for denoms under $5), credit, or text. No smartphone needed. Any receipt issued is good wherever you park in the city, so if you pay for an hour and find out the store where you parked doesn't have what you want, you can park somewhere else in town and use the balance. System works pretty well overall, though people still love to complain.

Would be nice if we had much of a downtown to go to, but thanks to the 2011 quakes, it'll be years before it's nice again.

Same thing happened her in Bellingham years ago. The city bought a whole bunch of LUKE machines to replace the old parking meters. No trial period - they bought them outright. Personally, I didn't care either way. They were more of a PITA than the individual meters, but I'm a worldly fellow and I know how to use many forms of parking devices.

Granted, Bellingham is cold and rainy, so that does add to the misery of hunting down a LUKE, paying then going back to your car again. But before anyone could get used to the LUKEs, old people and county simpletons ("rural conservatives") stormed into council meetings howling about how awful and evil and Marxist the LUKEs were.

The LUKEs were pulled and the old meters re-installed. The city was out over a million bucks. Eventually, they re-deployed some of the LUKEs but only in the civic area downtown. They seemed to go in with no complaints. Apparently, civil servants and lawyers are OK with LUKEs. Only the elderly and the stupid are opposed. Go figure.

I don't know about other jurisdictions, but the pay-and-display tickets here are very Photoshoppable. If I had to spend a lot of time in locations with these things, it would be very tempting.

They installed these in the downtown area of College Park, MD, recently in order to prevent people from just pulling into a metered space that still had time on it.

Since they did that, I have not parked in College Park, MD.

EViLTeW: I just skimmed, so maybe I missed it.

No one's mentioned that they probably could've just disabled all of the meters, stopped charging for parking and been in better shape financially than they are now?

Silly citizen, if they did that, then the guy at the meter company who's buddies with someone on the city council won't get their money, and the councilman won't get his kickback for giving him the contract!

I live in a city with almost no paid parking. I haven't paid for parking in over eight years, and that was a visit to Chicago. So I'm getting a kick out of these responses.

Honestly, I watch Parking Wars and wonder why anyone would live in a place like Detroit or Philly and own a car. It's just asking the city to give you a ticket.

I wasn't in Chicago long, just a couple of months and six months later got a parking ticket in the mail but when I called on it, they told me that my chance to fight it had expired, just pay it. When I asked why it took six months, they told me that it took that long to contact the state my car was registered in to find out who I was to fine me. I pointed out that my car wasn't physically given a ticket on the date of violation like the other cars are (bright red tickets taped to the window). She said that it's not done to out of state cars. So, my car wasn't ticketed on the date of violation, just given notice six months later because that's how long it took to find me through my state's DMV which was also longer than the time I had to dispute the ticket. They used to send me notes about how I should pay or they'll boot my car. I honestly doubt they'll send a parking enforcement officer 20 hours away by car, over a thousand miles out of their jurisdiction, to get me to pay a $100 parking fine. But it's been 8 years, I'm sure that ticket no longer matters, especially if I never head back to Chicago.

jjorsett: I don't know about other jurisdictions, but the pay-and-display tickets here are very Photoshoppable. If I had to spend a lot of time in locations with these things, it would be very tempting.

I know a guy who does that. He even got a $50 ticket for something like "altered ticket". I was surprised that they just give you a slap on the wrist for that.

Tanishh: They have these all over in Philly right now. Other than being reluctant to take somewhat crumpled cash, they work fine. No crashing or anything and pretty easy to figure out. It'd be nice if you could like tie your credit card to your license plate so you don't even have to put the slip in your window, but otherwise no issues.

The ones around Penn suck ass. Half of them don't work at all and the other half will only alternately take cash or credit cards. There is not a day I walk down the street watching people curse the machines (although that could be due to the typical Philadelphia citizen).

namatad: Great Janitor: I live in a city with almost no paid parking. I haven't paid for parking in over eight years, and that was a visit to Chicago. So I'm getting a kick out of these responses.

Honestly, I watch Parking Wars and wonder why anyone would live in a place like Detroit or Philly and own a car. It's just asking the city to give you a ticket.

I wasn't in Chicago long, just a couple of months and six months later got a parking ticket in the mail but when I called on it, they told me that my chance to fight it had expired, just pay it. When I asked why it took six months, they told me that it took that long to contact the state my car was registered in to find out who I was to fine me. I pointed out that my car wasn't physically given a ticket on the date of violation like the other cars are (bright red tickets taped to the window). She said that it's not done to out of state cars. So, my car wasn't ticketed on the date of violation, just given notice six months later because that's how long it took to find me through my state's DMV which was also longer than the time I had to dispute the ticket. They used to send me notes about how I should pay or they'll boot my car. I honestly doubt they'll send a parking enforcement officer 20 hours away by car, over a thousand miles out of their jurisdiction, to get me to pay a $100 parking fine. But it's been 8 years, I'm sure that ticket no longer matters, especially if I never head back to Chicago.

we need a followup from you when they arrest you for contempt of court
;-)

There is still jurisdiction and statute of limitations. I know Chicago is corrupt, but I have yet to hear of anyone getting arrested in one state and deported across the nation to Illinois because they failed to pay one parking ticket almost a decade ago for only $100. It would cost Chicago more money than they would get, not to mention that while yes, there is a federal database of people who are to be arrested and deported back to the state they committed their crime in, people who haven't paid parking tickets aren't dangerous enough for that database.

namatad: Great Janitor: There is still jurisdiction and statute of limitations. I know Chicago is corrupt, but I have yet to hear of anyone getting arrested in one state and deported across the nation to Illinois because they failed to pay one parking ticket almost a decade ago for only $100. It would cost Chicago more money than they would get, not to mention that while yes, there is a federal database of people who are to be arrested and deported back to the state they committed their crime in, people who haven't paid parking tickets aren't dangerous enough for that database.

LOL
sure sure sure
but they wont be charging you on the ticket, but on contempt of court, when you didnt show up at the trial.
shudder

did you miss that article earlier in the week about debtor prisons ?
:D

I read that article, but can you point me to one instance where someone was arrested for contempt of court 8 years after it happened? Or if there was a time when someone was arrested in one state and deported for contempt of court in a completely different state?

How about just doing away with parking meters altogether?

People who park in most metered spaces (usually in downtown areas) are coming to spend money at local businesses, which send tax money to the local government. Why do cities feel there is some sort of civic duty to double-dip paying customers?

Plus, metered parking ruins most people's time spent anyway - one always has to keep a nervous eye on the time in order to avoid getting nailed by going over.

Parking meters suck.

Stupid pay&display meters where I live have a 1.5hr minimum purchase. Really handy when you need to do something like, oh, pop in to the CVS and get a bottle of aspirin.

So fark 'em. When I return to my car and my ticket still has a significant amount of time on it, I walk back and tape it to the kiosk. Then the next guy who needs three minutes doesn't have to pay for an hour and a half.

Countdown until it becomes illegal: 3....2...1...

destrip: How about just doing away with parking meters altogether?

People who park in most metered spaces (usually in downtown areas) are coming to spend money at local businesses, which send tax money to the local government. Why do cities feel there is some sort of civic duty to double-dip paying customers?

Plus, metered parking ruins most people's time spent anyway - one always has to keep a nervous eye on the time in order to avoid getting nailed by going over.

Parking meters suck.

Know how I know you've never lived in a city?

Tulsa implemented the same type of meters a little over a year ago. I recently saw an article that said that less than half of them were working, so this comes as no surprise to me...