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The more logical solution, from the city's perspective, might be to just get rid of free-but-time-limited parking. Then parking meters could serve as both the e

The more logical solution, from the city's perspective, might be to just get rid of free-but-time-limited parking. Then parking meters could serve as both the enforcement mechanism and another revenue source.

steffan 8y ago
The article is inconclusive on this point, but many cities have paid and time-limited parking. The same issue applies whether parking is free or paid. In some jurisdictions, the law states that you may not park in the same spot longer than a specified interval without moving your car. In order to determine whether a car has moved between successive passes of Parking Enforcement, chalk (or another method) is used to determine whether the car has moved. I have seen some cities that further prohibit parking anywhere on the same block after the time limit has expired; this eliminates have to determine whether the car has moved since you can't simply drive around the block and back to your initial space.
chongli 8y ago
If they tried to do that then they'd have a massive protest by traffic enforcement people. They don't want that. If you look at almost any seemingly wasteful/pointless/inefficient thing a local government does, you're pretty much guaranteed to find jobs behind it. The very slight relief of annoyance from what these things cause to the general public is not enough to overcome the extreme outrage that occurs when a group of people lose their jobs.
- nine_k 8y ago
  Why. Park, register with a meter. Your first 15 minutes are free, as they used to be. More time is paid time. Unregistered parking leads to an immediate ticket. Those who did not abuse the system continue to park for free, and may expect more vacant spaces.
kolbe 8y ago
Most of my tickets have been from timed and metered parking. That is, I had to pay, and I wasn't allowed to pay for longer than X continuous hours.

steffan 8y ago

The article is inconclusive on this point, but many cities have paid and time-limited parking. The same issue applies whether parking is free or paid. In some jurisdictions, the law states that you may not park in the same spot longer than a specified interval without moving your car. In order to determine whether a car has moved between successive passes of Parking Enforcement, chalk (or another method) is used to determine whether the car has moved. I have seen some cities that further prohibit parking anywhere on the same block after the time limit has expired; this eliminates have to determine whether the car has moved since you can't simply drive around the block and back to your initial space.

chongli 8y ago

If they tried to do that then they'd have a massive protest by traffic enforcement people. They don't want that. If you look at almost any seemingly wasteful/pointless/inefficient thing a local government does, you're pretty much guaranteed to find jobs behind it. The very slight relief of annoyance from what these things cause to the general public is not enough to overcome the extreme outrage that occurs when a group of people lose their jobs.

nine_k 8y ago
Why. Park, register with a meter. Your first 15 minutes are free, as they used to be. More time is paid time. Unregistered parking leads to an immediate ticket. Those who did not abuse the system continue to park for free, and may expect more vacant spaces.

kolbe 8y ago

Most of my tickets have been from timed and metered parking. That is, I had to pay, and I wasn't allowed to pay for longer than X continuous hours.