Chicago's Privatized Parking Meters Are An Epic Failure
The City of Chicago has gone ahead with a deal to lease the city's parking meters to a company that raised the rates — and the results are reportedly tragic. It now costs 28 quarters to park for two hours in the Loop, which some say is causing the meters to fill up with quarters and break.
...But hardware store owner Dan O'Donnell said broken parking meters could be found along Armitage Avenue, and for two weeks no one from the city or the parking concessionaire showed up to do anything. The higher meter rates required drivers to put in many more quarters, which caused the meters to fill up and break down if they were not emptied, O'Donnell said.
"The meters filled up with quarters in only about a day, and no one is coming by to empty them out," O'Donnell said Tuesday. The quadrupling of parking rates this year has harmed his business, Armitage Hardware and Building Supply, 925 W. Armitage, he said.
"Why come to the hardware store for a 25-cent screw when it costs $1 or $2 to park while you're shopping? People are afraid to come in and get change for the meter because they'll go back to their car and find a ticket," O'Donnell said.
Also, some parking meters erroneously display stickers that say the meters only need to be fed on weekdays or during certain hours. Not anymore.
Outdated information on some meter stickers makes drivers vulnerable to receiving tickets. The old stickers still in place erroneously say that meters must be fed only on weekdays; the new policy is that meter rates apply seven days a week and for more hours each day.
The parking-meter companies last weekend exercised an option in the contract that allows them to ticket vehicles parked at expired meters, Walsh said. Chicago police officers and parking enforcement aides also continue to write tickets, and the city will keep all fines collected.
As if parking in Chicago wasn't already the most consistently evil experience known to man.
Chicago parking meters: Changes leave drivers angry, confused [Chicago Tribune]
(Photo:gb775)
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Comments:
Someone dropped the ball hard on that one.
Someone needs to pay for the city workers pensions.
Just uproot the meters, install parking boxes on every block that take dollar bills and dispense temporary passes, and THEN up the rates. They can't honestly think that people are going to put up with having to lug around so many quarters. It's absolutely ridiculous.
Auction off public services to the private sector: what could go wrong?
Oh. Wait.
this is hardly privatizing. It is just government outsourcing to a company with ties to the Chicago good ole boys network.
Exactly. Darrone and dancing_bear's cynicism would normally be exactly what the situation calls for, but they're uninformed here: This is privatization at work. And privatization never works.
Makes my $225 monthly parking rate look like the steal of the century. God, why do I still live in this city?
Wouldn't this have just been obvious to them as they're deciding how much to charge? No one thought to ask how much coin storage space the meters themselves had?
The last time I was in Chicago it was a few years ago, but we were lucky enough to find an open metered spot a few blocks from Navy Pier. I think we got 2-3 hours on around $3 in quarters.
@Trai_Dep: But it'll regulate itself out better for consumers! Just like the Chicago Skyway!
Oh. Wait.
@Darrone: And maybe they'll validate my parking when I drive there to write them a check! (but probably not)
28 quarters for 2 hours? That is less than 5 minutes a quarter.
Oh Chicago, your leaders are so corrupt.
I blame Obama...
Damn, the ads are back... as of now. I can't reply again.
Any, I think that... duh? Usually privatized means nothing but trouble if there aren't enough competitors to make it worthwhile.
I live near Dan's store, and I can say this is completely true. The damn parking meters around here almost all still have stickers with the old rates. Or have a note that says, IT WONT TAKE MY QUARTERS, DON'T TOWZE ME BRO!
@Gene Gemperline: Exactly what they did in downtown Los Angeles when they spiked the rates up. I don't understand what is so hard about doing that.
@Trai_Dep: Stupid. Did the government open the meters to market competition? Did the government keep their dirty hands off the running of the meters? Of course not. They hand-picked a stooge company as a front to maintain their monopoly, and continue to run things behind the scenes with regulations. Nice try.
"You could seriously ruin this for me by letting out the secret," Mark Sloan told a reporter after he parked his Nissan Sentra on Dayton and headed toward a tavern for happy hour. "This is my beer money we're talking about."
Maybe drinking less isn't such a bad idea considering he's CLEARLY DRIVING HOME.
@Ninja007: Uhh, they control the meters and rates. What else - short of building their own roads or installing their own meters - is private about it?
Of course, they don't do that since the model - take public investments for free then leech out the profits into a well-connected crony's pocket - requires it. What, do you expect them to invest their own money before sucking a municipality dry? Are you insane?!
And the whole point of privitization is handing over taxpayer funds to well-connected contributors. Always.
So yeah: totally appropriate example of privitization.
Or is this like "Conservatism never fails since we redefine what 'Conservatism' means every time it inevitably produces carnage, deficits and tears"?
@Segador: I've heard rumors that the Chicago Police are actually quite skilled at individual entrepreneurism. Does that count?
@clever epithet: Since it's CHicago, it costs 60 quarters for a beer. I doubt he could get wasted in that city even if he sold his car.
Simple solution here. Remember Cool Hand Luke? Just break open these meters; the private corporation will spend so much money fixing them that they'll go out of business.
What I love are the meters that display the new rates but haven't been re-calibrated yet, so a quarter still gets you what it used to.
Seems these guys are failing all around on this one.
This is just another reason why I refuse to step foot in that city.
Chicago - you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villany.
this is another example of some things in society that belong in the pervue of government.
There will always be huge problems when you change govt operations to for profit in:
The military : Blackwater, Haliburton
Prisons; That flap in Pennsylvania a couple of weeks ago.
Traffic enforcement: Stop light and speed cameras
Parking enforcement: as noted in the story
Some things are just the govenments responsibility to run at a break even. There should never be profit in these things as it leads to corruption.
"It now costs 28 quarters to park for two hours in the Loop"
HOLY. SHIT.
And to think yesterday I was a bit whiney about paying 50 cents for 90 minutes of metered parking. (You get half an hour free with the first quarter!)
@Hank Scorpio:
Should have followed the rules and read the article first, since that point is already mentioned!
Oh, well.
AFAIK, the meters in the downtown area of Sacramento, CA have not been privatized, but the city did install these new kiosks on each block. You pay at the machine and then have to put the receipt on your dash. Not a bad system since you can now pay with cards or cash.
The crazy thing is that the rate varies block by block. In some areas, a quarter gets you 13 minutes. If you park in a thirty minute spot, you have to pay for 39 minutes to get the full time allowed. What's up with that?
I agree with Gene Gemperline, Parking boxes are a far better solution. I like being able to use my debit card. They started popping up in DC recently
Everyone is so quick to blame privatization. As if a sweetheart deal in Chicago is akin to legitimate privatization.
Plenty of cities have private meters nowadays. Plenty of cities other than Chicago make this work just fine.
Also-- what happened to simply using meter printouts? There are printout meters all across the city of Chicago-- who stipulated that these needed to use quarters?
@tripnman: Are they trying to approximate the meter system where you pay more to park in certain areas? Like in most of my city, a quarter gets you half an hour (maxes out at 2 hours), but in front of the courthouse, a quarter gets you 5 minutes and you max out at 15 minutes. In front of City Hall, I think a quarter gets you 10 minutes to a max of half an hour.
Chicago is screwed up! We received letters in the mail from the DMV telling us that rusty license plates now need to be replaced. Hmm I wonder if this has anything to do with them jacking up the prices of license plates?
I think *part* of the reason for the increased meter rates is to encourage people not to drive into the loop. Obviously there is a profit motive, but the two actually work pretty well together. High rates discourage people from driving into an area well-served by the CTA, and the meter owners reap high profits off those too lazy/impatient/"good" to ride public transit.
@Gene Gemperline: Same here in Portland (OR). From the city's perspective, this is also a good plan because driver's leave and take the temporary pass with them, as opposed to the coin-fed meters that still have time on them when you leave. Under the new system, virtually everyone overpays for parking and leaves with time still available on their pass.
@ArntorFTL: I won't drive there. I hate even driving through it on I-94. I'll Metra in and then bus or walk around. I'm just an occasional tourist though, couldn't imagine living there.
@Trai_Dep: Conservatism, Liberalism, Libertarianism...
Doesn't matter what language you speak, "sphincter-boy" means the same in all of them.
And isn't "Chicago" Spanish for "sphincter-squeezings" anyway?
@Shaftoe: Luckily, there is no corruption in government run prisons, traffic enforcement, and parking enforcement. What's the admission fee to get into your world?
@Dave J.: Also you can pay with Credit Card, at least I think the ones in DC you can, and it prevents good Samaritans from feeding other peoples expired meters meaning more tickets and thus even more revenue.
@johnfrombrooklyn: Yes I do remember Cool Hand Luke. He wasn't breaking them open, he was just cutting the heads off of them.
I had a car while I lived in Chicago. I used it a few times over a few years. It's really not too necessary, but when it is, oh man, what a pain! I remember parking in one neighborhood one time to go to a club, and when I got back, someone had parked in the red zone behind me, literally within a couple of inches of my bumper behind me. No space in front either. So, I had to do an Austin Powers for like half an hour before I finally got far enough to ram the back car a bit (yay rubber bumpers...) and slide out. Alarm from the back car going off over and over, yet the owner obviously didn't care too much...
Why all the complaining? I'm sure the politicians in Chicago can fix this for a nominal fee combined with a campaign donation and a cut of future proceeds. Lighten up!