You know the feeling — you’ve only got a little time left on the parking meter but you’re stuck somewhere, forcing you to face either a parking ticket, or even worse, having your car towed. One woman who was unable to feed the meter after spending hours in the ER with her infant son reached out to her fellow mothers, and was rewarded with an outpouring of generosity from total strangers. [More]
parking meters
Strangers Pitch In To Keep Woman’s Car From Being Towed While She’s In The ER With Infant Son
By 7.23.15
Court Rules Parking Meter “Robin Hoods” Are Protected By First Amendment
By 6.10.15
A city in New Hampshire says that its parking enforcement officers have been harassed and kept from doing their duties by a group of “Robin Hoods” who follow the officers around, not only putting coins in expired meters before cars can be ticketed, but videotaping and speaking rudely to them. Yesterday, the state’s highest court ruled that this behavior is protected by the First Amendment, but will give the city one more chance to argue for some sort of injunction to put some distance between the Robin Hoods and the officers. [More]
Local Official Admits Stealing 1.8M Quarters By The Fistful From Parking Meter Coin Storage
By 3.20.14
When you sacrifice up your hard-earned quarters in order to secure a parking spot, it might be annoying, but at least that money ostensibly goes toward bettering your community via the local government. Which is why it’s totally uncool for a town official to loot the parking meter coin storage like it’s his own personal piggybank. [More]
Team Of ‘Robin Hoods’ Feeds Parking Meters, Gets Sued
By 5.20.13
The city of Keene, New Hampshire claims that the problem isn’t the “Robin Hood” brigade of people who feed parking meters in the city in order to save drivers from tickets. No, they can fill meters with coins all day long and the city government claims that it won’t mind. The problem, claims the city, is that the merry band of meter-feeders are harassing and stressing out all three parking enforcement officers and being nuisances while they save residents from tickets. So the city has sued them. [More]
Mall Puts Up Its Own Parking Meters Of ‘Questionable Legality’, Issues Tickets
By 1.18.13
A shopping center in Yonkers, N.Y. (yep, Consumerist’s global headquarters) didn’t think that it was doing anything wrong when it set up its own parking meters along the private streets on its property. Customers fed them. You park next to a meter, you feed it, right? Park Ridge has collected money and even issued its own parking tickets since the spring of 2011. The problem, of course, is that the city of Yonkers is the only entity with the authority to issue parking tickets and run meters. According to city officials, the shopping center’s developer kept collecting meter money and ticketing non-payers even after the City Council asked them to stop. [More]
Congratulations, Chicago: Your City Now Has The Most Expensive Parking Meters In The U.S.
By 12.27.12 — Updated: 12.28.12
In a move that will earn it the dubious honor of being home to North America’s most expensive parking meters, Chicago’s downtown meters will start charging parkers $6.50 an hour starting on New Year’s Day, up from $5.75. It’s the highest rate for a downtown area and the fifth year the city’s parking meter rates have gone up. Umm, so, congratulations? [More]
San Francisco Drivers Find Out The Hard Way That Parking Meters Didn't Take The Holiday Off
By 9.4.12
In many cities, parking meters take a day off on Sundays or on holidays, leaving car owners free of worrying about that dang expired meter. But even though the city of San Francisco added holidays like Labor Day, Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Veterans Day to its list of days where meter fees count in 2010, many residents complained of getting tickets this past Labor Day. [More]
Woman Files Claim Against City For $1.7 Billion Claiming Wireless Parking Meters Are Making Her Sick
By 8.17.12
Wireless signals are bouncing around us all day and all night — from mobile phones, Internet services and now in Santa Monica, Calif., new city parking meters. One woman who apparently is known for submitting detailed reports during public comment periods with the City Council claims all those wireless signals emitted from newfangled parking meters are making her ill — and she wants $1.7 billion for her health problems because of it. Plus another $1.7 million every month after that. [More]
New Parking Meter Sensors Put An End To Parking On Previous Driver's Dime
By 5.25.12
Have you ever pulled up to a metered parking spot and found that the driver who just left the space still had time left on the meter? It’s like getting free money, especially if that leftover time is enough for you to run your errand without having to feed the meter. But the folks in Denver are testing out new sensors that would delete any remaining time when you drive away from the meter. [More]
San Fran Launches Parking Meters With Supply And Demand Based Pricing
By 8.10.10
That little love bubble known as San Francisco is at it again, introducing new “smart” parking meters that, among their many innovations, change their prices based on supply and demand. [More]
Parking Meter Revolt: Chicagoans Are Vandalizing Parking Meters In Protest!
By 3.25.09
The Chicago parking meter saga continues today with a post from theexpiredmeter.com, a blog about Chicago parking tickets and how to fight them. The post has photos of parking meters being spray painted, destroyed and otherwise defaced. Guess people aren’t too thrilled with paying 28 quarters for 2 hours in the Loop…
Are Chicagoans Rebelling Against The New Parking Meter Regime?
By 3.23.09
The evidence is purely anecdotal, but it seems that some unrest might be brewing in the City of Chicago. Now that the Mayor has leased the city’s parking meters to a company that jacked up the rates, people might be staying home rather than feed the meters — which now take as many as 28 quarters for 2 hours.
Chicago To Lease Parking Meters To A Company That Will Charge $6.50 An Hour?
By 12.3.08
The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago is trying to get “quickie” approval for a proposal to privatize the city’s parking meters. Under the 75 year lease, Chicago’s 36,000 parking meters would be controlled by a partnership that includes Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and LAZ Parking. This partnership will, naturally, raise prices. Critics of the proposal say that charging $6.50 an hour by 2013 to park downtown would hurt local businesses.
UPDATE: Bank Of America Has No Idea Whether It Treats Parking Meter Payments As A Cash Advance
By 7.16.08
Remember our reader who tried to use his Bank of America debit card on a parking meter and was charged a $10 cash advance fee? One of our commenters did a little investigation on our story and got two conflicting responses from Bank of America.
Bank Of America Treats Parking Meter Payments As Cash Advances, Charges $10 Fee
By 6.25.08
Reader Gary used his Bank of America credit card to pay $2 on a parking meter in Washington, DC. Bank of America treated it as a cash advance and slapped him with a $10 fee, as well as a higher APR. When Gary called to complain, he learned that it wasn’t an error: Bank of America has started treating payments to parking meters as cash advances and may even treat all payments to government entities as cash advances.
