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The Size And Importance Of The Parking Universe

A Name For The Pain

Is there a special affliction common to people who get a large number of parking tickets? A medical affliction these sufferers can call their own? Maybe not technically. At least, not according to doctors. But as parkinghorrors.com, if we had to guess at what such an affliction might be, we'd opt for trichotillomania — an irresistible urge to pull out your own hair. It's something our own staff has reported some days when you know what turns up on their car windshield once too often in the course of a single week. Happily, though, there are support groups...

The Kind Of Help You Maybe Don't Really Need

Generally speaking, we support anything that reduces the number of parking tickets received by people who very often these days are financially strapped. Some new devices on the market claiming to help achieve this end, however, strike us as rather...odd. For example, there's one that claims to be a specially designed alarm that goes off when your meter is near expiration, and can even provide you with GPS instructions back to your vehicle. Our questions about this device are these: First, why not just look at your watch or set its timer; and second, for goodness sake, if you're so confused and/or plastered that you can't find your way back to your car, you shouldn't be driving it.

Less Than Zero Tolerance

We ran across a tale recently that not only once again displays how destructive parking tickets can be in so many ways, but the utter inanity of our increasingly fear-based society. A woman was hired for a new job pending completion of an investigation of her background. The investigation found just one "problem" — there was a court case pending involving a single unpaid parking ticket. She ended up being fired over this because she had not noted it on her job application. Alright. There are jobs where a criminal record may be a red flag and a reason for not hiring or for firing when they are discovered. But a court appearance over an unpaid parking ticket? Cry the beloved country.

Urban Planner Alert

You think parking rates in many cities seem out of whack? Perhaps this will explain why. It's taken from a policy paper from an urban planning group that sets out to explain how to set these rates. And please keep in mind that what follows is no joke. "Fee scenarios for establishing new parking facilities are formulated using the contingent valuation method with a double bound dichotomous choice question format for potential user's willingness to pay (WTP) for these new services. Moreover, the WTP can be adopted as an effective tool to determine the parking fee in cases where demand-price curve and value of time are unknown...[because] it relates WTP with the users' socioeconomic characteristics, urban attitudes, the residence area, and the opinion of users concerning urban problems." Or maybe they could just charge a buck or two an hour to park.

No Escape

Bankruptcy is not a pleasant experience for anyone. But its one uplifting aspect is that it usually permits you to get out of paying some institutions that have stuck it to you in nasty ways on a regular basis, institutions such as credit card issuing banks. So will bankruptcy let you off the hook on parking fines and penalties? Alas, no. Fees and fines mandated by law are not usually discharged — except as so-called "hardship discharges" that are not likely to be applied to parking tickets considered small potatoes by a bankruptcy court in an overall filing. Parking authorities get you while you're up. They kick you when you're down. Welcome to parking ticket world.

A Convenience that Ain't

Modern parking meters are in many ways more high-tech than the military's anti-ballistic systems — and they actually work as advertised. But some of the things advertised as conveniences of these high-tech marvels don't seem all that sensible in the context of real life. Consider the new Photo ViolationMeter. Sure it accepts credit cards, debt cards, and smart cards as well as honest money. It lets people connect to Wi-Fi. It even greets motorists with a happy talking message, and who doesn't want to converse with a parking meter? The fact that you can punch in some keys and have it ring your cell phone when your time is running out, however, pushes the "convenience" envelope too far in our way of thinking. Are you supposed to race from a business meeting or a store register to get to this machine before it lightens your wallet? Does one really have to risk a coronary responding to a device that exists to rob you legally? There's such a thing as insult to injury — or in this case, potential injury to financial insult.

My Brother's (Parking Ticket) Keeper?

We ran across this tale on the Internet. It presents an interesting moral question. See what you think. A guy was asked to handle the mail of a neighbor while she was overseas. One day the post brought something from the traffic bureau. He opened it and discovered his neighbor had three outstanding $50 tickets, which if not paid could cause her problems with license renewal as well as late fee add-ons. So what to do? Pay the tickets for the neighbor or not? Does getting someone else's mail as a favor obligate you to pay their parking tickets and hope the money gets repaid? When do you become your brother's (or sister's) parking ticket keeper? 

Scales of Injustice

United States

USA Colleges — Higher Education

We're getting reports from a number of colleges that students can't even register for classes unless they pay outstanding parking fines previously incurred in college parking facilities. Some student may take this amiss. But the wiser ones realize that this is exactly the kind of education they need for life after graduation — education teaching that while many societal infractions may be overlooked, failing to meet one's obligations to parking authorities is most definitely verboten.

USA — Arresting Surprises

Most people who break the law to the extent they are subject to arrest at least know they might get arrested. But not everyone. Especially not everyone in a state where the authorities are very serious about getting paid for outstanding parking tickets. We're hearing reports from different parts of the country about people being arrested for driving without a valid drivers license. The thing is they had no idea they no longer had an invalid drivers license because it had been rendered invalid for not paying three tickets (or even fewer!) parking tickets within a specified period. Yes, the state lets you know by mail this has been done, but not everyone is in-state at the time, or even living anymore at the place listed on the license when the notification is sent. So a cop stops you, gives you the bad news, and hauls you off to sit on the Group W bench with the other evil offenders — people who maybe didn't have the wherewithal to pay pricey tickets plus late fees because of lost jobs or other personal financial crises. Welcome to the new America, son.

USA — Actors' Workshops

The American military has made great efforts to prepare its soldiers for almost any situation they are likely to encounter. A growing number of parking authorities around the country are doing the same thing with their own combat troops — their ticket givers. They're running training programs that teach "verbal judo," techniques that will hopefully allow them to confront angry drivers without either one resorting to violence. Of course, as we've reported in past postings, if an angry driver does become violent in some cities it is treated as a felony, while if the ticket giver does it isn't. So all things considered, it's best if both players in these street dramas stay in a purely acting mode.

USA — Dirty Dealing in The Land Of Privatized Parking

Parking metering and ticketing are a honey pot, not only for local governments, but the firms who have come into this arena via privatizing — a process by which local governments give all or some of the rights to milk the driving public for up-front cash for a taste of the private company's takings down the road. With this much money at stake, a bit of skullduggery is not all that surprising. Hence the news that one of the biggest private players in the field is suing another major player for stealing its emails for the last two years. Let us hope that the loser in this suit doesn't try to make up the money it will doubtless have to pay out in a court settlement by stiffing drivers even more.

USA Colleges — Good Place To Learn But Don't Park There

Colleges and universities in this country have long been rated on academics. And on where they stand when it comes to partying. And on the strength of their football teams. But there's a new criteria on campus — parking. A university paper recently gave an F to the University of Massachusetts (UMass) when it came to the parking it provides its students, a C- to Boston University, a C- to Northeastern, a C- to Penn State, and a D to Connecticut. The big reasons why UMass was ranked down at the bottom? Very overcrowded and badly maintained student parking lots.

USA — Beware Predatory Bank Parking

A lot of banks have their own parking lots. These are supposed to be used only by bank customers. But for a long time most banks didn't care very much and didn't enforce the "customers only" policy because why bother. Now some banks around the country have found a reason to do so — to garner fees they get from towers. The thing to remember here is that enforcing a customer only policy at bank parking lots is much easier than at most other places. Banks are generally open at very regular times, usually 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., so a car in a bank's lot before that time or after that time, one not belonging to a bank employee, can be towed without fear it belongs to a customer. Thus, some of the same banks screwing us with their credit card policies are now taking another bite with their parking policies. Not surprising maybe, but definitely not nice.

Many Cities & Towns — The Convenience of Valet Parking (If Any) May be outweighed by its risks 

A lot of people (including those of us at parkinghorrors.com) think the "service" performed by valet parkers in a great many situations is about as worthwhile as the "service" performed by street people who squeegee unasked the windshields of cars. In addition to the annoyance and expense, however, there can be dangers generated by valet parking. Here's a few of them: Contents of your vehicle can be stolen; if there's insurance or other personal paperwork in the glove compartment, it can be taken, giving potential thieves access to valuable personal information; car keys and even house keys if on the same chain can be duplicated; and as was parodied in an old episode of "Seinfeld," even rank odors can be left behind. So if you are allowed by circumstances to park nearby without valet assistance, well...

Cities in the USA — Prayer Giveth, American Cities Taketh Away

Religious conflict is on view in so many places around the world, why shouldn't it find a place when it comes to parking in American cities? That's a question one might ask when it comes to some recent news from Washington, D.C. and Chicago. In Washington, a directive from the local police department states that parking regulations would be enforced around the city seven days a week — including the Christian Sunday sabbath. This generated a furor from several churches whose congregants have long been used to parking wherever they could find a space while attending Sunday services in areas where parking is always scarce. The upshot? Tickets in this Washington neighborhood are still being issued. There was a similar result in a situation involving access parking lanes at O'Hare Airport in Chicago, where Muslim taxi drivers have long stopped to make their own regular prayers. Tickets here cost them $50-$80, half their daily net wage. In spite of protests, these tickets, too, are still being issued. Will God and prayer ultimately triumph over the need of cities for parking revenues? Bookies now set the odds at 6 to-1, urban need over godly creed.

Cities in the USA — The Duh Factor

We've been reporting that in some cities intent on generating more revenue for their general funds with more parking ticket fines, the attempt is failing. Just adding more ticket slingers and boosting ticket tolls don't necessarily do the job. This has been the case for New York City. It also seems to be happening in Oakland, California, which sent out additional ticket givers in its own streets in recent months, but still saw fewer tickets written and fine collection down. Oakland city officials can't seem to figure out why, though local merchants whose own businesses have plummeted in the same period keep shouting the reason. It's this: You deliberately set out to stiff motorists coming to your downtown, fewer come. Ticket collection as well as local business incomes then suffer. It's not a hard thing to understand. Duh...

Cities in the USA — Mapping Ticketing War Zones

A technique long popular to show people especially lethal war zones is now gaining popularity in the parking ticklet realm. Newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle and New York Times (to name just two) have run special maps showing the parts of their respective cities most plagued by aggressive ticketing. People obliged to go into high casualty war zones wear special vests and helmets, and are issued instructions to reduced the chance for injury or death. But what can you wear (or do) to protect yourself from ticket slingers whose work lives revolve around making you poorer?

USA — Your Federal Government At Work

Bet you thought only local governments and local courts got mixed up with collecting parking tickets. No, sir. There's a Central Violations Bureau of the United States District Court that keeps track of these grave offenses when committed by federal employees, and supplies data about outstanding violations to organizations like the police of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These coppers than can go after the perking perps, and have the right to have their cars towed. We at parkinghorrors.com feel much safer these days knowing that a branch of the federal government is focused on these issues, instead of wasting time on trivia such as the recession and health care.

USA — Ducking Tickets On Car Rentals

Think that if you rent a car and get a ticket or two the car rental company gets stuck with the fine? Think again. Yes, the rental company will have to pay the fine because they are the car's owner. But they have your credit card information and will add the ticketing costs to your credit card bill — plus a little something extra in the form of an administration fee. These people have been playing the ticketing game longer than you have, and they rarely end up a loser.

USA — Advertising A Relationship With 'The Man'

Have you been feeling sad because local governments and private car parking operations must pay to print their parking tickets, an expense that cuts into their net profits? If so, weep no more! Because there's a way to offset these onerous overhead expenses with advertising on the tickets. Indeed, many jurisdictions and car parks put ads on their tickets already. What we find confusing at parkinghorrors.com, however, is the thinking of any company that uses this advertising medium. Is there anything positive about the ticketing experience that would make a recipient feel kindly disposed to a company helping to support today's overly aggressive ticketing game?

USA — Bum Trade

While the damages to local neighborhood merchants are the most obvious negative consequence of overly aggressive ticketing, it's always good to keep in mind how it hurts other aspects of a local economy. An AAA official recently summed up these dangers by noting: "For tourists, strict parking enforcement probably won't keep them away, so much as it will leave them embittered when they receive a ticket..." and ..."for suburbanites, parking tickets might dissuade some of them from going to certain neighborhoods if they fear overzealous parking enforcement officers." Against all these negatives are the few extra dollars overly aggressive ticketing brings into city coffers. A bum trade-off in our view.

USA — Games People Play

The cost of parking at some public events has become so onerous, it has spawned a fast spreading rip-off. Less than scrupulous individuals charge event goers just a few dollars to park in a nearby lot. Unfortunately, it's a private lot that isn't there to accept these cars. Tow trucks get called and the cars are carted off, costing their owners huge fees to recover them. There have even been situations reported where the private lot owner hires people to falsely direct parkers to a place where they can be towed, ands splits the recovery fee with a tow truck operator. Watch out for this one. It's turning up all over the place.

Cities in the USA — Turning The Worthwhile Nasty For Money

Efforts around the country to stop illegal parking in disabled parking spots have become a classic example of good intentions taken to extreme to raise revenue. Certainly, people who park in these spots without actually being disabled deserve to be punished. But punished with a $500 fine, as is the case in Columbus, Ohio? Or by being ticketed by vigilantes recruited by a city, as is the case in Corpus Christi, Texas? Or by sending out cops who collected $32,000 in fines for Waltham, Massachusetts recently in return for which they received $6,000 in overtime pay? Even legitimate enforcement becomes abusive enforcement when revenue enhancement is thrown into the mix.

USA — Another Possible Price of Meter Progress

There's no doubt that the new meters that have been installed in large cities around the country in recent years are good for what these cities consider important — racking in more money from the motoring public. But one thing that hasn't been considered is the possible consequence of having devices that take credit cards and are networked. Will some clever hacker start stealing credit card information from meters the way they have stolen this information from other networked systems? A lot of people think this is on the horizon. Some think it may already have occurred.

Cities in the USA — Private Booters On Private Property

It isn't only local governments that employ predatory practices in order to make money from parking. Private property owners who allow parking on their property only at certain times or for certain lengths of time have often cashed in as well — usually in cahoots with towing companies. Here's how this game is played. A sign is posted stating permitted parking rules. Tow and booting trucks in league with the property owner then make regular rounds of the property to catch rule breakers. Sometimes, they even just wait on the property itself to do this more efficiently, though this may be illegal in some jurisdictions. And when these hunters strike, the costs to motorists can be steep. In Chicago, for example, it can cost $115 to have a boot placed by a private booter on private property removed. In Miami, the fee can run to $85. In Minneapolis, $103.

USA — The Dumbest Ticketing Rationale Of All

You ask some officials if ticketing hurts their local economies. They assure you it doesn't, because like a tax on hotel stays, cars with out-of-town plates — tourists — are prime ticket targets. Such thinking, even if it actually represents an official's honest view, is astonishingly dumb. Ask any traveler who has been hit with a big parking fine while on vacation or a business trip if they would ever willingly return to the town where the ticket was issued. And the answer will almost always be "Are you crazy?" Tourist bureau chiefs pay heed. Your local parking authority may be undermining your town's badly needed tourist trade.

Cities in the USA — Tax Hikes

How would you like it if your income tax were raised 20, 40 or even 100 percent or more by government fiat just because some taxing authority thought it would be a good way to bring more money into its own kitty? Well, when it comes to the "curb tax," another way of describing parking tickets, this is now happening all the time in this country. To cite just a few recent examples: Yonkers, New York boosted its basic ticket charge from $40 to $50; Newark, New Jersey from $25 to $45; Sonoma, California from $20 to $40; and tiny LaCrosse, Wisconsin from $8 to $20. Such quick fix revenue hikes are becoming the rule, not the exception.The Real Top Ticket Scoffer.

USA — Biggest Non-payers

We reported in an earlier post that embassies and private delivery services were the biggest non-paying acquirers of parking tickets. But it seems we were wrong (this happens on occasion). It's postal service trucks that actually get the most tickets around the country. Alas for jurisdictions that have so diligently plastered postal vehicles with parking tickets, the postal service is expected to soon announce losses of several billion dollars and may close 700 post offices in consequence. Which makes one suspect that paying off its old parking fines will not be this ticket scoffer's top priority any time soon.

USA — Dying For Our Sins

Paul Newman passed away not so long ago. He starred in a number of very good movies, but for those addicted to parking lore, his greatest role will always be as "Cool Hand Luke." For those too young or too foolish not to have rented this 1967 classic, the movie opens with Luke, a bit worse for wear after a night of drinking, sawing off the head of a Duncan parking meter. This admittedly extreme act of meter protest led to a sentence of two years on a chain gang. Here he was beaten by the gang's top hardman, foully treated by its evil honcho, and ultimately shot to death after escaping. Well, there's at least been some progress in this country. We don't have chain gangs anymore.

USA — A Professional Portrait

Perhaps you've wondered what qualifications one needs for the challenging position of parking enforcement officer. Of course it varies from place to place. In some jurisdictions you may only need to be on good terms with a local patronage dispensing pol. But in larger locales, here's a fairly common sample of what's required: A high school education or equivalent, no felony record, a valid driver's license, and you usually have to be at least 21 years old. You also must be skilled enough to use a hand-held computer that issues parking tickets, be able to contact towers by phone when required, and have the smarts to recognize and report broken parking meters. These are pretty much the sole professional qualifications of folks who bring untold misery to literally millions of Americans each year, and bring billions of dollars into local government coffers.

USA — The Parking Tickets That Weren't

For awhile drivers around the country were finding objects on their windshields that appeared to be parking tickets. They were actually cunning scams designed to direct recipients to an email site where they could be relieved of money or personal information. The perpetuators of this particular scam were located. Some future variants of similar "malware attacks" are inevitable, however, adding yet another layer of insult to the insulting techniques cities and towns themselves employ to boost their ticketing take. And in that regard...

Alaska

Alaska — Parking News From Palin Country

You don't have to be the governor of Alaska to go rouge in that state. Recently a man was convicted of attempting to hold up his mother. He needed $430 to pay an overdue parking ticket and she wouldn't come up with the cash. He could be sentenced. according to new reports, to up to 12 years in prison. And the way add-on fines and interest are computed with most parking tickets in most places these days, this naughty fellow might well owe the equivalent of Alaska's state debt when he returns to the tundra. You betcha!

Arizona

Arizona — They Don't Always Win

Sometimes laws or court rulings, can frustrate even the most cunningly devised high-tech based modes of revenue enhancement. Take what's been happening in Arizona, for example. The state planned to use 200 radar equipped vehicles to spot speeding motorists and stick them with hefty fines. The equipment to achieve this worked perfectly, but a shortfall in available funds led to only 100 such vehicles ending up on the state's highways. That was bad enough (from the state's perspective). But then there was this old court ruling. It seems that in order to actually get speeding violators into court in Arizona where the fines are made official, you had to serve them personally with appearance papers. So all a speeder has to do is avoid the document servers for the law's mandated 90-day serving period and the violation goes away — which motorists have been doing in droves. The result: the state isn't making money on the deal. Sad.

Phoenix — State Versus City

You get hit with a parking fine, you probably don't care what government is sticking it to you. But maybe you should. In Phoenix, for example, the average parking ticket is $31. Of this amount, however, just $17 actually goes to the city with the rest going to the state of Arizona in the form of surcharges. States such as Arizona, in other words, are seeking to cash in increasingly from the ticketing pain of motorists. And as they increase their surcharges on tickets, cities that are increasingly depending on parking revenues pass along the hikes to drivers. The more revenue hungry the state, the more aggressive with ticketing its cities, drivers from coast to coast are coming to realize.

Phoenix — Private Garage Giving

The higher the street parking costs, the more private parking garages can usually charge. The more private parking garage owner’s pull in, the more likely they are to show their appreciation by contributing to the campaign chests of local pols. According to one recent study, the average private garage monthly fee to park a car in a major U.S. city has risen to $154. In Phoenix, Arizona, where the monthly parking rate was a mere $35 in 2007, it is now up to $65 — after that city also raised its street parking fees dramatically in the last two years. Let's hope local officials are thanked generously by Phoenix garage owners for their street parking policies.

California

Some states just need a page of their own. Click here for California.

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Colorado

Denver — Verse

We take pride in our parking poetry here at parkinghorrors.com. It's powerful stuff, and poignant almost beyond belief. And when others take a shot with this particular muse, even if it doesn't meet our own high standards, we'll sometimes give it a nod. Here's a verse someone put up on a street in Denver where ticketing is prolific on days when the street sweepers give the ticket givers an excuse to do their dirty deeds:

The street they will sweepy,
The parking ticket will make you weepy,
So park away from this verse,
And avoid the parking maids curse.

Great art? Maybe not. But the intent is clearly good.

Denver — No Place For Beginners

Street sweeping day is feed-the-city's-coffers-day in Denver. It's when extra large numbers of tickets are dispensed in some of that city's neighborhoods. It's also when drivers seeking to park in these neighborhoods try various ways to keep from getting tagged. One trick favored by inexperienced drivers who don't yet fully understand how the game is played, is to try and time the passage of ticket-givers. They wait until one has passed, and think it's safe to park their cars until street sweeping hours are over. Alas, since the ticket givers in these neighborhoods often work in pairs, a follow-up dispenser writes the tickets. Parking in Denver without getting clipped not only requires cunning, you gotta know the ways of its predators.

Denver — Mile High Inconvenience

Denver is one of the more aggressive cities when it comes to doling out tickets and towing away drivers who have a small number that are overdue. The justification for this behavior in the "mile high city" (as it bills itself) is that it needs the money to function properly. Alas, functioning properly doesn't seem to include letting people who have had their cars towed get them back in a timely manner. One recent day the city department where drivers have to pay in cash to get their towed cars back if they can't use a credit card online to do the job was closed — because of the city's budget crisis. Since this closing was on a Friday, and the department was also closed on the weekend, they couldn't get their cars for three days. Ticketing that Friday in Denver, however, was not also suspended.

Denver — Food As Ticketing Bait

It happened late last year, but alas, could easily happen again this year and in this season. There's a farming practice called "gleaning." After crops are picked from a field, there's almost always some of the crop left over that can be gleaned by people hardy (and desperate) enough to do so. Last year a farm couple in a town near Denver allowed anyone who wished, anyone who might need the food, to come to glean freely in its field. More than 40,000 people showed up. But because many had to park in places that cars were usually not allowed to park, the police came, too — and issued tickets. Welcome to present day America.

Denver — If Only There Were More Like Him

Denver's top ticket giver is a serious contender for ticketing best of show. He dispensed more than 22,000 zingers in a single year to residents and visitors in mile-high land, and also holds the city's record for most tickets given out in a single day – 404. Think of it! If he could maintain that daily pace for 300 working days a year, he could write 121,200 tickets annually. And at a modest $30 per ticket, that would bring $3,636,000 into Denver's coffers. And if Denver had 1,000 like him doing such great work over a year, it would generate $363 million. According to newspaper reports, this guy used to be a security guard. Thank heavens he made the jump.

Denver — In The Ticketing Van—Guard

Diplomats at the UN were long notorious for running up huge numbers of tickets that they often didn't bother paying. When it comes to big ticket runners-up, however, certain parcel delivery services are also no slouches. In Denver, for example, the biggest recipient of parking tickets last year was a single UPS van. In 2008 this van and its driver racked up almost 200 zingers at a cost of $5,700 in fines.

Colorado Springs — The Nays Have it

"Businesses aren't hurt all that much by aggressive parking ticketing in their neighborhoods." How many times have you heard this twaddle from local officials who use parking to milk the public in order to fill government coffers? Well, now we have numerical proof how local businesses feel about aggressive policies. It comes from Colorado Springs, Colorado, where parking fines not so long ago increased from $10 to $20. Fifty-Five business owners in the downtown were asked if the increase hurt their business. Fifty-four said yes. Case closed.

Connecticut

New haven — Maybe Sometimes You Outta Let It Go

We all have those "special" memories. That first date. That first job interview. That first day in grammar school or high school when we were so scared. That first parking ticket. That first parking ticket? Maybe that's not something most people still remember or even would like to remember. But an artist in New Haven, Connecticut has taken the plunge. He has not only actually salvaged the parking meter next to where his ticketed vehicle stood that fateful day, he's excavated nearby dirt, grass and sidewalk. And to think, we at parkinghorrors.com thought we were ticket-obsessive!

Hartford — Stick 'Em With Stickum

The pay and display parking receipts spewed out by those new metering stations being used in a growing number of cities can cause problems. People pay but forget to place the receipt on their dashboards. Or in the case of an early version of an "improved" receipt used for a time in Hartford, Connecticut, which had adhesive on one side of the receipt that adhered it to a windshield, the adhesive was placed on the wrong side so receipt detail faced inward. The new receipts in Connecticut's capital city have the adhesive on the correct side. But if these new receipts are placed on a dashboard improperly, information needed to prevent getting a ticket can sometimes be hidden. Local officials are working diligently to address this problem. Whichever way they solve it, rest assured motorists will get get stuck with the bill.

Connecticut — Setting Ticket Prices In Court

The size of ticket fines in most places are determined by local ticketing authorities. But in Connecticut, the size of these fines is determined by judges at the state's Superior Court. They make these determinations every year on October 1st. It's just a guess, of course. But we're thinking that based on what's happening everywhere else in the country, these fines will increase a few days hence — and probably substantially.

Florida

Florida — Adding The Insult Of Bad Taste To The Injury Of Parking Tickets

Motorists have become a honey pot of revenue for states that take a piece of the parking ticket fines issued by their local cities and towns. Now some states such as Texas, and perhaps in the near future Florida, are giving some of their motorists the opportunity to use their vehicles to get something back — a reduction in in their licensing fees. What's asked in return? The state will put the logo of a private company on your license plate, keep some of this advertising revenue for itself, with the rest going to license renewal fee reduction. What a gem of an idea. When parked, you get parking tickets. On the road, you become moving billboards for a company whose products you may not even like.

Meter Follies

Miami — A Constitutional Issue

As we've reported in the past, a number of cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles have been extracting very large sums from local motorists with their red light cameras — cameras that generate hefty fines for those who go through red lights. These devices have proven a nifty revenue enhancers for many of the  jurisdictions that have installed them. The other day, however, a judge in Miami threw a constitutional monkey wrench about their use that may be felt around the country. The judge said that fines generated using these cameras are unconstitutional because only the state can pass traffic laws while cities can only pass local ordinances involving matters such as parking. And that cities assessing these camera-based fines as if they were "code violations" a la parking laws, simply to avoid endless and extensive court challenges, are doing so unconstitutionally. This matter will doubtless be adjudicated for some time to come, and we'll keep you updated.

Jacksonville — Leave It To The Collection Pros

Since 1998 Jacksonville, Florida has been using a collection agency to go after people who have the gall (or don't have the bucks) to not pay their parking tickets on time. The economics of this city's arrangement with its private collection arm are instructive — and for those of us raised in less crazy times, not a little spooky. Say you get a $15 ticket in this berg. After 10 days they add on a $10 late fee; after 30 days another $15 fee on top of that; and after 40 days the private collection agency takes the case, with 40 percent more added on to the unpaid ticket total as the agency's own profit. The state also won't renew your car registration if you have outstanding tickets and of course the city itself will boot. So what can one conclude about Jacksonville when all these things are taken into account? A good place to buy orange juice cheap, but leave the car at home.

Florida — Tethering Elephant Restrictions

What do you do with your elephant when you're in Florida and can't bring it into a store where you're planning to shop? Whatever you decide, don't tether it to a parking meter. It's against the law in the Sunshine State and can generate a hefty fine. Though this regulation was put on the books because circuses often wintered in Florida and paraded their animals down the street, stopping on occasion as they did so, this rule nonetheless applies to all elephant owners.

Miami — Amusing Idea

Some merchants in Miami had an amusing idea not so long ago. They hired an actress who donned water wings, a wig and a fake halo, and was sent out in front of their businesses to feed the meters of people who would otherwise have gotten tickets. The joke didn't last long, of course. Cops were called and the "Miami meter fairy" was shooed away. But at least a few motorists were saved tickets (at no meter costs for the city), and the police didn't use lethal force in defense of ticket producing expired meters.

Georgia

Atlanta — Atlanta Sells Its Parking Rights

As certain as a sunrise or a high tide is the certainty that when a city privatizes its parking administration, motorists will see a huge increase in the local curb tax. In September the city of Atlanta approved privatization its own parking operations with a guarantee that doing do would boost the city's revenues. Last year Atlanta collected just $2.1 million in parking revenues. From now on, though, the company it sold parking right to will guarantee revenues of $5.5 million annually, keeping anything it collects over that amount for itself. And how will it make this profit? By metering 2,500 parking spaces in the city instead of the present 900. By aggressively going after motorists who currently owe $7 million in outstanding ticket fines. And by seeing no one gets way from paying for future public parking, one way or another. Now won't that make parking in Atlanta heaps of fun in months and years to come.

Atlanta — Atlanta Motorists Offered Up For A Fleecing

Atlanta is seeking to privatize its parking system. The deal is very close to consummation. Atlanta opted for this measure because it is so strapped for cash it had to lay off three-quarters of its ticket-slinging force, ticket issuance dropped from 13,000 to just 5,000 a month in consequence, and the city's take from ticketing fell to $80,000 a month from an average of $240,000 monthly. So the city is taking the privatization route — though you'd think that after Chicago's horrific experience with privatizing public parking, other big cities would know better. Since Atlanta obviously doesn't know better, we offer the following prediction, which is guaranteed to be accurate: The new private operator will prove inept, greedy, oblivious to public outcries, and generate enormous anger at the city officials who gave them the keys to the ticketing kingdom. Absolutely guaranteed.

Hawaii

Hawaii — But Where Will My Car Sleep?

Squeezing the most possible dollars from parking charges is not just a government gambit. Nor even just a practice of private lot operators. It has become a big ticket item at hotels around the world — especially those where tourists who must rent cars to get around visit. A case in point is Hawaii. Some of the priciest hotels on Honolulu now charge $25 or more a night to park a rental car. Less pricey hotels may charge a bit less but still more than visitors usually expect to pay. Leaving a hotel on Hawaii with a weekly car parking charge of $150-$200 tacked on to the room charges is now a commonplace. A tip for travelers: When you inquire about room rates, if you plan to use a car during your visit, ask about car parking fees, too. The information might change your stay-over plans.

Idaho

Boise — Going World Class

Different towns use different criteria to decide whether they've earned the title "world class city." Some think they've reached this plateau when they put in a winning bid for the Olympics. Others become cultural or financial world class cities when they start attracting large numbers of visitors or investors from around the world. For Boise, Idaho, entering this charmed circle meant installing the same high-tech parking meters used in Paris. Boise's website boasted about "Euro-Parking" when some of these splendid devices, which actually look like ATMs that mated with mail boxes, were installed near city hall. Congratulations, Boise. Or as they say in Paris, France, Viva La Papillion! (papillion, butterfly in French, is also the term use for parking tickets). You made the world class grade. Kind of...

Illinois

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Indiana

Indianapolis — More On Madcap Indianapolis 

Indianapolis — Meanwhile, In Indianapolis...

Indianapolis — A Lonely Point Of Light

Yes, these are dark days for motorists across America and indeed around the globe. They have become the revenue generating golden goose for every up-against-it local official who sees jerking around street signs, meters and fines a sure-fire way to milk and bilk the public. But occasionally points of light appear even in this spreading darkness, and here at parkinghorrors.com we like to report these along with all the awful and often grotesque. And there's a gem to report from Indianapolis. Last month that city decided NOT to raise its base parking fine, to leave it at a modest $20 rather than jack it up to help balance its budget. One of our editors at parkinghorrors.com opined that the large number of Quakers in this city might explain this blessed event. Whatever the reason, we salute you Indianapolis, and may your example seep down to meaner spirited jurisdictions.

Iowa

State University of Iowa — College Tuition

In case you thought that your college costs weren't high enough, the parking element of those costs are also going through the roof in many parts of the country. Case in point, the State University of Iowa, where the Board of Regents has just doubled illegal parking fines on campus to $30, and the cost of not buying a parking receipt to $10 from $7.50. The big hit, however, was in the fine for unauthorized possession of a parking permit. That goes to $150 from $80. There's some good news, though. An appropriately obedient and careful student might actually have enough left over from parking costs for books.

Des Moines — Wheel Competition

One of the slogans of the beasts in George Orwell's great satire, Animal Farm, was "four legs good, two legs bad." The four-legged critters were farm animals, the two-legged ones their one-time human masters. These days there's a similar two-versus-four competition going in Des Moines, Iowa. On a residential street where parking for residents is now legal, there's a proposal before the city council to do away with the parking lane and turn it into a bike lane. Though it was a tough choice here for the staff of ParkingHorrors.com, we ultimately decided to go with the four-wheel parking crowd on this one. After all, you can use a stationary bike in the house, but a car parked on the living room rug leaves unsightly tire tracks.

Kentucky

Louisville — The Louisville Shrugger 

Louisville — Nastier By The Month

As local governments get more and more cash strapped, they get nastier and nastier when it comes to enforcing their parking-related regulations — or in making up new ones to bilk the public. Here's a few more examples of bad things getting worse on the parking front. In Louisville, Kentucky they now boot cars with just two outstanding parking tickets and boot them even when they are currently parked legally. In Boston, you now get ticketed $35 for parking more than a foot from the curb (until recently that was a $20 ticket). In Washington, D.C., street sweeping trucks now have cameras that take pictures used to ticket cars that didn't escape before the street sweeping is scheduled.The only good thing about such developments is that at least we're not hearing as often that curb taxation is really just honest enforcement. Even many parking officials now seem ashamed of peddling that twaddle.

Louisville — Usury On The March

Remember when loan sharking used to be associated only with the criminal classes? When if you didn't pay the "vig" on time each week, they would only add 20 percent to what you owed? Ah, those were the days. Now that the sharks are city parking ticket collectors, the vig has soared. In Louisville, Kentucky, by way of example, you have just seven days to pay a $15 parking ticket fine. After seven days the fine is increased 66 percent to $25. And if you haven't paid in 15 days you get a certified letter saying you owe $55. If a full month goes by and you haven't paid up, do they take your first born? Not yet.

Lousiana

Where Did All The Easy Go?

New Orleans — Big Easy Party Poopers

New Orleans — Big Easy Ticketers Asleep At The Wheel

"Getting your ZZZs" for most people brings to mind getting enough sleep. But for one poor motorist in New Orleans it meant getting 226 undeserved parking tickets and demands for 20K in fines. How did this happen? This motorist liked ZZ Tops, so had ZZ put on her license plate. Exhibiting the genius for which parking authorities are known worldwide, this led to the determination that she was the perp who kept driving around an unlicensed vehicle — because zzz is the ticketing code for such vehicles. OK you Big Easy ticket slingers. Back to sleep.

Maryland

Baltimore — Out With The Judge, Up With The Revenue

Poor Baltimore. They are aggressively, some might say outrageously, enforcing parking regulations in a desperate effort to make up for shortfalls in the city's finances. But they still have parking tickets adjudicated as a criminal offense. This means people can go to court to complain, which leads more than 90 percent of those who take the trouble to go to court, see their tickets tossed by sympathetic judges, who presumably also drive here and know the games the city is playing. But this might all change soon. A recent study conducted for the mayor suggests the city decriminalize parking offenses the way most other big cities have done. Then employees of the local parking authority can decide if tickets are valid. And surprise! They almost invariable do. Look for this change to happen soon in Baltimore...

Baltimore — Windshield Loan Sharks

Most cities add a little something when people don't pay their parking tickets within a certain amount of time. These penalties are often excessive. In some places, however, they are outright outrageous, and bring to mind the late charges exacted by neighborhood loan sharks. Baltimore is among the worst offenders in this regard. It's average parking ticket runs about $23. But it adds $16 a month for every month that this fine is unpaid. If computing how this works out in terms of an annual interest is too hard for you to figure by yourself, check with your neighborhood loan shark. He's been working with this kind of math forever.

Baltimore — National Security Yields To Parking Regulations

Nobody is too big for Baltimore's crack towing brigade. Nobody! In most cities you have to have 5 or 6 overdue tickets before you're towed. In Baltimore they apply the boot after just three. And just because your vehicle happens to belong to the Secret Service, and be guarding the President's daughter, that's no protection at all. Jenna Bush's, Secret Service vehicle got the boot a few months back. One positive way to view this super aggressive level of parking enforcement is that in a democracy, even the most wired folks can get screwed by a transcendentally powerful parking establishment. Now do you feel more positive when it comes to towing?

Pregnant Pause

Massachusetts

Boston — Snow Alert

Boston — A Ticket Multiplication Primer

It seems obviously unfair to get more than one ticket for parking in the same parking place. But as the law as written in Boston makes clear, there are ways that ticket multiplication can come about anyway. You can, for example, get more than one ticket in the same parking place if: you're in the same spot for more than six hours; you're in the same spot for just 10 minutes when parking regulations that apply to this spot change; you don't have a valid license plate; you don't have a valid inspection sticker; or you come back, find a ticket on your car, put more money in the meter and it expires again before you return to take the car away. So don't be angry if you get several tickets for parking in the same place. It's all legal in Boston — if not exactly aboveboard.

Gloucester — The Best Place From Which To Fight A Parking Ticket

A man is now fighting a parking ticket he received in Gloucester, Massachusetts. No surprise there. Lots of people these days fight tickets they get in Massachusetts towns. The reason this man claims the ticket isn't valid is because he called someone at Gloucester's city council to alert them to a broken car park meter and was told not to worry, no ticket would be issued. It was issued anyway. The person on the phone lied. Nothing unusual about that either. What is a bit odd in this case is where this complaining gentleman lives — with his wife on a yacht moored in a Mexican marina. Too bad the rest of us who receive undeserved tickets can't protest them from such a comfortable locale. Or just way achor to escape the consequences.

Needham — Living With Shame

The Town of Needham, Massachusetts has just released a list of motorists who owe the most in parking tickets. Many of them are out-of-towners. No surprise there. People with North Carolina, Illinois and other out-of-state plates are not very likely to pay fines that may run to a couple of hundred dollars just because not doing so makes Needham officialdom unhappy. But don't get too cocky, you evil scofflaws. Needham has its own way to make you suffer. They have printed your names in local newspapers, some of which have readerships numbered in the high hundreds. Now you'll have to live with the shame.

Wellfleet — Scraper Fines

Wellfleet, Massachusetts has long been known as the seaside town where shrinks go for a couple weeks each summer to escape their neurotic patients. Now it has another distinction. It's also the place where they first charge you $70 to park for a swimming season in the public lots near the beach, then fine you another $50 if you don't scrape off the previous year's parking sticker from your car's windshield. The reason local officials say this is being done is silly. The real reason, the only reason, is that they are doing it because they can do it. It's enough to make even a shrink go over the edge.

Boston — Write One For The Gipper

A Boston newspaper has reported that the Chief of Police in one of the city's suburbs instructed his coppers to give out "one tag a day" — one parking ticket daily in order to help his financially up--against-it community. Far be it from us at parkinghorrors.com to tell a leader of the protect and serve crew his job. But it occurs to us that if you deliberately set out to squeeze some cash from motorists whether they deserve it or not, and if you have guns, why bother doing the job by writing parking tickets?

Somerville — Keeping The Secret Everyone Already Knows

Note to city governments: If you insist that you're not using parking tickets to generate revenue, but merely enforcing needed parking regulations, don't undermine this ridiculous canard in your annual budget. Take the city of Somerville, Massachusetts as a negative example in this regard. Last year it collected $7.2 million from ticketing. But in this year's budget, it is expecting $8.7 million from the same source. Since motorists coming to this town aren't going to be less prudent when it comes to parking, this increase can only come from more aggressive enforcement. And you put this down in writing! Municipal curb-taxers should be more prudent in their official writings.

Massachusetts — Keeping A Lid On Meter Vulnerabilities

A year ago the vulnerabilities of new smart meters that had been installed in Massachusetts cities were exposed by hackers. These were good hackers, however, who didn't want to bilk these cities, merely show them that devices they had purchased might have some serious deficiencies. Massachusetts officials prevented this information from being made public by getting a court to issue a restraining order. Now these same hackers, looking at the same smart meters, are trying to get word out about the same vulnerabilities when it comes to the 23,000 of them that San Francisco purchased for $35 million in 2003. Will local officials there also seek to prevent word getting out about problems of these high priced devices? Will they, too, take the view that you can't have the public knowing how parking authorities may be screwed up?

Cambridge — What Did He Do And When Did We Know It?

It turns out that Barack Obama, while going to Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts during the 1980s, ran up 15 parking tickets that he didn't pay—didn't pay until running for President last year when the issue came to light. He then settled all outstanding charges, including $260 in late fees. Now I don't want to be disrespectful here. The fact is I think he's been a pretty good president. But you just have to wonder if he ever would have settled up had a local newspaper not exposed this 17-year-old dissing of parking regulations? And when the paper that broke the story noted a spokesman for then candidate Obama's campaign dismissed the incident as not relevant, well, maybe the rest of us not paying our parking tickets for 17 years is not that relevant either.

Michigan

Flint — Without A Flame

Michigan — The Dangers Of Driving While Displaying A Rosary

Though this site usually deals with parking excesses, its worth noting on occasion excessive and kinky enforcement of other kinds of local regulations. A case in point is the tickets now being given out for windshield obstruction in Illinois and Michigan. Drivers who have handicap placards, tweety bird air fresheners, and rosaries covering small areas of their windshields are being stopped by police, warned, and in some case fined 91 percent more than five years ago, according to news reports. Is this a good way to employ limited police resources? Only if the idea is to supply a plausible excuse for revenue enhancement. If you're driving in Illinois or Michigan, plan on hiding the rosary and take the baby shoes off the rearview until you cross state lines.

Michigan — On The Parking Education Front

Remember the good old days when college was fun? Or at least if it wasn't fun it wasn't because of parking hassles. In Michigan college towns a recent law passed by the state's legislature that can lead to losing a driver's license with three outstanding parking tickets instead of the old six is causing real hurt for many Michigan college students with vehicles. The reason comes down to a number of pervasive factors. Not enough parking spaces in college towns for all the students with cars; local governments trying to finesse budget shortfalls with very aggressive ticketing; and students so strapped for cash after paying college costs they can't easily pay the pricier ticket fines. In the '60s young people dropped out of school to do drugs, find God, and march for peace. Now they may have to do it to save their drivers licenses.

Ypsilanti — Welcome Back To Ticketing U.

A year or two back, students returning to college in Ypsilanti, Michigan got a nasty surprise. They were supposed to have a resident's sticker on their car windshield to avoid getting ticketing when they park in a neighborhood near their school. In past years they had a few weeks to get such a sticker without getting anything worse than a warning from local ticket givers. But this year they got hit with $50 tickets the day class started. Tacky? Sure. But perfectly acceptable under local laws. And as Gilbert and Sullivan once noted: "The law's the true embodiment of all that's good and excellent." Or maybe not...

Missouri

Kansas City — Insult To Injury

St. Louis – Creative Types

Why are more parking tickets being issued in U. City, a part of St. Louis? A local official explained it this way, according to a news report: "We can't raise taxes," he said. So...the city is trying to be as creative and diligent as possible." Can't raise taxes? What does he think parking tickets are if not a curb tax? Creative? Sending mobile tax collectors out on the streets to stiff the motoring public is creativity? Diligent? You want to be really diligent, provide better local services.

St. Louis – A View From The Mountain

An assistant vice-president at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has written a study that finds a link between increased parking ticketing by local governments and shortfalls in their revenues. According to news reports, the study was inspired by a pricey ticket this economist received while traveling in Pennsylvania. Now we don't you wish to be unkind to an economic professional who manages to twig to this relationship. But really, do you need a PhD to understand that revenue shortfalls at the local level these days spawn more ticketing like cold germs spawn colds?

Nebraska

Omaha, Nebraska — A Tad Too Accepting When It Comes To Parking Tickets?

There was a story run not so long ago on an Omaha, Nebraska TV station that highlights how parking ticketing is viewed in certain parts of Middle America. In major East Coast cities like Washington, D.C., and major West Coast cities like San Francisco, media coverage tends to exhibit a certain hostility toward ticketing, a reflection of popular anger of these cities' residents who feel their local government is sticking it to them too aggressively in order to squeeze a bit more revenue for its own coffers. But in Omaha, to judge from this report, because "the money collected [from parking tickets] goes to schools," it was really bad citizenship for "hundreds of [local] drivers to have three or more overdue parking tickets." This report then went out to confront the naughty scalawags who had a half-dozen of the unpaid things — hardly worth a mention by big coastal city standards — in order to publicly embarrass them, Our view at parkinghorrors.com toward this mode of presentation? If you make the ticket-givers the good guys, and those who can't afford to pony up the bad guys, it's not only an unfortunate one-sided view, it's one that guarantees there'll be more and more tickets issued until some media resistance finally appears...

New Hampshire

Portsmouth — Such A deal

Here's the parking deal you can now get in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. You can buy a little electronic gizmo (an iPark 2.0) the size of a chocolate bar that shows how much meter time you've pre-paid at the town hall. This gizmo can be displayed on your dashboard when you go downtown, and as long as your pre-pay has not run out, you won't get ticketed. Sound good? You betcha. But there's more! The cost of every $25, $50 and $100 pre-pay has a surcharge of just $2.50, $3.50 and $5.00 respectively. Who knew such surcharge bargains were still possible! A charter membership in iPark 2.0 also costs a mere $25. You're not just buying something here to keep from getting parking tickets, in other words, you're becoming a charter member of something important, like in a country club! And wait. There's still more! The first 50 buyers of the iPark 2.0 memberships will get a $10 parking credit. And the first 200 who buy it on line will get the same credit, plus free shipping. How in God's name do they do it? At last, paying for street parking is fun. In your cars everyone, and off to Portsmouth!

Portsmouth — Outing Parking Ticket Victims

Newspaper are filled with the names of people who commit serious crimes. It's rare, though, very rare, to have the addresses of these criminals given as part of the story. But in yet another sign of parking fine collection nuttiness, the town of Portsmouth, NH is doing just that with people who owe money on their parking tickets. The town recently posted in a local newspaper the names, addresses, and amounts of outstanding ticket fines owed by 21 motorists. Local officials apparently believe this will embarrass these people, make them feel ashamed.

Portsmouth — Pooch Punished Along With Parking Perp

In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, they take ticketing enforcement seriously, very seriously. Just because you're a grandmother living in public housing, and the ticket amount involved is just $90, and the violation happened eight year previously, won't save you from local ticket Vopos. They nabbed the old lady, handcuffed her, threw her in the slammer. And to show how really tough they were, they also impounded her dog, Sally. Perhaps the only really good news here was that neither grandmother nor dog were beaten to a pulp.

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New Jersey

Jersey City — Ticketing The New Jersey Way

In the state where public malfeasance is currently the only growth industry, and only the most egregious indictments and convictions are usually still deemed newsworthy, ticket fixing is naturally a widespread and long expected practice. One example: Four municipal court judges in Jersey City took leaves while being investigated for ticket fixing for family members and friends. One of these worthies, a former chief judge, resigned.

New Brunswick — The Price of Dissent

One reason many ticket giving city administrations don't like the public to have the right to a protest a parking ticket in court is that some judges "toss" a lot of tickets — i.e. they find for the drivers and the city loses its hoped for fine revenue. Of course, judges in some places seem inclined instead to rule in a way that actively discourages protesting a ticket in court. Take the case of a woman in New Brunswick, New Jersey, who thought she was stiffed on a ticket in a city garage. She was angry. She went to court. The judge found for the city—then threw in another $55 in court costs. Doesn't make contesting a ticket in this town seem like a good idea, does it? Even if you were actually wronged.

Newark — Another Parking Turkey

In Newark there's a major dispute between the mayor and the city council about parking. Oh, not whether tickets should cost more. Nor whether enforcement generally should be stiffened to close a very large budget gap. No need to argue about this —they're givens. The debate is whether to eliminate fee parking on Thanksgiving Day. The city has been allowing this since roughly the time Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. But the mayor thinks its time to stop playing nice guy. Other great suggestions that may soon be on the way — coal in the Christmas stocking, and half pay for overtime.

Newark — Tax Hikes

How would you like it if your income tax were raised 20, 40 or even 100 percent or more by government fiat just because some taxing authority thought it would be a good way to bring more money into its own kitty? Well, when it comes to the "curb tax," another way of describing parking tickets, this is now happening all the time in this country. To cite just a few recent examples: Yonkers, New York boosted its basic ticket charge from $40 to $50; Newark, New Jersey from $25 to $45; Sonoma, California from $20 to $40; and tiny LaCrosse, Wisconsin from $8 to $20. Such quick fix revenue hikes are becoming the rule, not the exception.

New Mexico

Albuquerque — Fighting Pollution The Free Meter Way

While the federal government is encouraging drivers to buy vehicles that get better mileage with a "cash for clunker" program, some cities around the country are doing their pollution-fighting bit in a very different way. Salt Lake City is the latest jurisdiction to give free meter parking to cars that exceed a certain mileage standards or are alternative fuel powered. Albuquerque, New Mexico and Austin, Texas are among the other cities that have similar programs—programs whose only defect is that if a ticket slinger doesn't recognize the exceptional nature of these clean air vehicles, or ignores the ID tag that occasionally are appended to them, a driver can still face hours of hassles getting a ticket cleared.

New York

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Nevada

Reno — Pick The Machine That Will Soon Be Nicking You

Reno, Nevada, which bills itself "the biggest little city in the world," has long been known as a place to get a quickie divorce or drop a few bucks at the tables. Now, however, it offers both residents and visitors a unique opportunity — an opportunity to test and comment on three different parking metering systems. One of these three high-tech meters, replacing the old mechanical model, will be purchased by the city, and drivers can vote on which will ultimately be chosen. Choices include one that collects from single spaces with a smart card feature; one in which a single kiosk that collects from multiple spaces also offers future metering possibilities for bikes; and another multi-space covering model that lets users display their paid time receipts on dash or windshield. Come one, come all! Join the fun and take part in this citizen survey. Have your own say in choosing the high-tech marvel that will soon be relieving you of some hard-earned cash in the town where once that was only done by divorce lawyers and casinos.

Ohio

Toledo — The Ticketing Disappointments Keep Piling Up

Toledo, Ohio, notorious in ticketing circles for giving parking tickets to people who park in their own driveways if those driveways are gravel surfaced instead of paved, has done what a number of other American cities have done in recent years to try and raise additional revenue — contracted with a private company to install red light cameras on some of its streets. A sure-fire way to bring in the cash to a really cash-strapped town? Not for poor, floundering Toledo. Though it renegotiated its contract with the camera supplier to keep 54 percent of the revenue generated rather than the original 25 percent, though it raised each ticket fine from $95 in 2008 to $120 last year, though it started systematic booting of offenders with several outstanding tickets and printed the names of the worst offenders in local newspapers, it still only collected 44 percent of these red light camera-generated fines totaling $875,000 last year instead of the hoped for $2.5 million. It seems some towns just can't seem to catch a break when it comes to milking their motorists. How sad...

Toledo — Holy Toledo!

Toledo — For Once We Out-Nasty England

Another horror tale from England. A woman was having work done on her home. Workers on the roof were dropping things down on to her driveway. So she moved her car and parked it in front of the driveway. Her own driveway. A parking warden came by and ticketed the car. The ticket had to be paid, even though the car was not blocking anything but the driveway only used by the car's owner. A nasty business? Yes. But visitors to this site may recall that in Toledo, Ohio you can be ticketed while in your own driveway if it's surfaced with gravel, because gravel is deemed a public road surfacing material in Toledo so any car parked on gravel can be ticketed. 

Columbus — Makes The Parking Big Time

Cleveland — Parking Miseries Too

A leading magazine recently named Cleveland the most miserable city to live in the United States. In terms of parking tickets, however, it's not even in the top ten worst big cities, with Washington. D.C. and Chicago sharing that dubious honor. Still, the Cleveland parking bureaucracy has its negative ticketing moments. Like the tale told on the Internet of a man receiving a $50 ticket for a supposed violation that occurred 10 years earlier. Not surprisingly, the recipient of this demento assessment, a man who had never actually even visited Cleveland, was unhappy, and fearful that if he didn't pay it might lead to nasty consequences such as a stain on his credit. So he appealed. And when he was turned down, appealed again. On the third appeal, the ticket giving agency finally acknowledged that it had just mixed up his plate number with another driver's. Not an apology, exactly, but at least the dunning notices stopped.

Cleveland — A Taxi Driver's Lament

Driving a taxi is a tough way to make a buck no matter what part of the country you work in. But reports coming in from cities such as Chicago and Cleveland show it has gotten even harder of late because of parking ticketing. Perhaps nowhere is this truer than in some residential neighborhoods in Miami. Here, 24-hour meters were installed not long ago. Cabbies, most netting $100 or less for a 12-hour day shift, sack out at night for some rest in these neighborhoods. And here also meter maids come around at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning slapping $25 tickets under their wipers. It ain't a nice way to treat a working man or woman — curb taxing them a quarter of their net incomes.

Columbus — Resistance Is Futile

When parking fines were increased in Columbus, Ohio, last year, the aim —at least the stated aim—was to get people to park their vehicles in a more prudent manner by penalizing them more if they didn't. And it worked. According to news reports, 10,000 fewer tickets were written last year. But surprise! The city still took in more than a million dollars in additional parking fines. In Columbus as in so many others across the nation, they will get more from drivers no matter what you do or don't do. Be prudent, be careful, obey the laws, they get you anyway. Resistance is futile.

Akron — Mistakes Happen, Refunds Maybe Not

Local governments often contract out collection of overdue parking fines to private companies. Occasionally, though, the information these governments send their eager beaver collectors is wrong, as was the case not long ago with an Ohio town near Akron. Nearly 6,000 drivers got ticket collection notices for tickets not actually issued to them. When a few of these people took the trouble to complain, the town refunded their $18.85 fines. But those law-abiding drivers who made the silly assumption that if they were being dunned for a ticket it was actually owed, and paid as demanded, were out $18.75 unnecessarily. Tacky, tacky.

Oklahoma

Muskogee — Down Home Ticketing Returns To Muskogee

While many big cities around the country are going high-tech with their parking meters and ticketing, Muskogee, OK is taking a very different route. The town, made famous by the country music classic, "Proud To Be An Oakie From Muskogee," has been selling its 44 old Duncan parking meters on eBay. In the future ticketing in town will be the responsibility of a city worker using chalk to mark tires.

Oklahoma — Prisoners Of Parking History

Soon after the parking meter was invented in Oklahoma in the mid-1930s, the first parking ticket was issued in 1935. Its recipient went to court and explained he went into a store to get change to feed the thing, and the case was dismissed. A more critical court case followed a short time later. The defendant's lawyer claimed parking tickets were illegal because you couldn't ticket on a public street, it being public and belonging to everyone, including motorists. The victory in this case, however, went to the ticket-givers. The city's lawyer said the ticket was not issued to penalize the motorist for parking illegally, but the fine was to pay for needed parking enforcement. If this logic makes you agree with Mr. Mumble in Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist" that the law is an ass, join the crowd. Whatever the legal logic for ticketing these days, you get one, you gotta pay it.

Oklahoma City — On The Legal Front

As Gilbert and Sullivan once poignantly noted, "The law's the true embodiment of all that's good and excellent." And one sees an example of such goodness and excellence in a recent appeals court case. While getting a parking ticket is just a misdemeanor, in some jurisdictions, perhaps because of a lack of more serious offenses to occupy the minds and fill the work days of local police, it seems to be taken seriously indeed. In Oklahoma City, for example, a guy not long ago was arrested by four police officers for three outstanding parking tickets, an occurrence which reports suggest is not all that uncommon in this berg. The perp in this heinous crime sued both the city and the four officers but lost. Goodness and excellence once again on view in our court system. Oklahoma City will soon have its first professional sports team when the Seattle Sonics move there. The city is looking for a new name to replace "Sonics." May we suggest "Meter Muggers"?

Oregon

Oregon City — Battling Ticket Givers

It's not exactly a battle of the titans. It is, however, an interesting sidebar in the epic struggle for limited parking spaces in many American towns and cities. In downtown Oregon City the biggest non-payers of parking tickets issued in that town's historic downtown district are local sheriff deputies. They park there in order to do their business in a nearby court house. To check this practice the town's lone fulll-time meter enforcer tickets deputy cars. The deputies respond by ticketing his scooter. Since the downtown can't be expanded for various reasons, this struggle will likely continue into the indefinite future. Here at parkinghorrors.com we're hoping they end up bankrupting each other.

Portland — Meter Economics

Portland, Oregon now has 1,363 SmartMeters, each collecting money for 6 or 7 parking spaces. They replaced 7,100 old single space meters. The new meters are partially solar powered, kick out paper receipts drivers must display on their front windshields, and after a retooling in 2008 have more secure software to protect those who pay to park with credit cards.The new meters cost $7,500 apiece, the old one $650 apiece. So why did the city decide to spend the extra money? Less upkeep costs to maintain the new meters is one reason, But the major one is that collections went up 40 percent after they were installed. Why? Because by allowing motorists to use credit cards, there was a natural tendency for them to buy more time than if coins had to be used to pay for the time. Also, because "free parking" was abolished. Motorists could no longer find meters with unexpired time they could use themselves, since every user now had to purchase his/her own parking receipt. So here's the overall economic outcome of this high-tech change-over: City wins, drivers lose.

Oregon — Ticket Giving For All

Civilians deputized by local governments can give out parking tickets in many jurisdictions around the country. They do it if on behalf of these governments with government approval. It's a way to extend the revenue enhancing reach of these governments. In Oregon last year a different scenario played out. A lawyer found a section of state law that permitted him or anyone else who sees a parking violation to report it — in essence to issue a ticket. This lawyer then issued one to a cop he saw illegally parked, eating lunch beside a "No Parking" sign. That law, we understand, has since been modified. But just think if it weren't, and was in place in every state. We could all become freelance ticketing vigilantes and spend our time making everyone we don't like who drives a car miserable.

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Pennsylvania

Philadelphia — A Knife To Grind With Philly

Doylestown — Be Nice To Ticketeers — Or Else

Philadelphia — Parking Wars Review

Pennsylvania — Parking Ticket Politics

Tom Corbett was reelected Attorney General of Pennsylvania in a hard fought battle with a Democratic challenger. One of the issues that came up in the campaign involved parking. Specifically, the accusation that this challenger used a government pass in order to keep from feeding a parking meter when he should have. Office holders' often cavalier attitude to paying the curb tax (meter feeding and ticketing) is slowly creeping into the public discourse. It started at the top when then-presidential candidate Obama had to come forward and pay some of his own long outstanding zingers. Now its slipped down to the state attorney general level. Maybe if more public officials get caught, the curb tax will be moderated.

Philadelphia — Towed Motorists Strike Back

There's a limit on towing charges from private property in Philadelphia. It's $150. In many parts of the city, however, signs were long posted warning that it would cost $175 a tow, and that's what drivers had to come up with to reclaim their vehicles. This bit of towing malpractice has now been corrected by city authorities. But they still have a beef with towers. The city is demanding the towers accept credit cards as well as cash. The towers hate this idea because people who pay with credit cards have a tendency to strike back — to get back their car, then cancel the credit card payment. What a surprise. People reneging on payments for this vital "service." What's the world coming to these days?

Philadelphia — Ticket-Related Inflation

In 1992 a Philadelphia cop beat up a meter maid who was giving him a ticket. The ticket-giver sued, got a few thousand dollars from the city, and ever since then there's been bad blood between the local Parking Authority and the local Police Department. A similar situation has just turned up in Chicago. Here, a cop and some associates are accused of cuffing and arresting a ticket-giver after she put a zinger on the cop's van. This one is still be played out in court. But the interesting new element here is that this ticket-giver is suing the city for a million dollars. It's another aspect of ticket-related inflation.

Pittsburgh — Getting Back In The Top Tier

Pittsburgh, once the world's leading steel producer, fell into second-tier economic status in the decades after WW II. Now, however, it is a world class city once again — at least in the way it makes it impossible to protest parking tickets. You call the Pittsburgh Parking Authority to complain and you get a recorded announcement that gives you two choices. Only two choices. How to pay a ticket, or how to get more information about the local parking authority's great work improving the community. If you ask to speak with a real human the recording doesn't recognize the question and disconnects. World class, right.

Pittsburgh — Circular Reasoning In P-Town

A Pittsburgh man was angry about getting tickets for parking on street cleaning days. He was angry because the street where he parked didn't seem to be getting cleaner. So one day he work at home to see if the street was actually be cleaned when it was supposed to be. It wasn't. He did it again the following week. Same result. His conclusion: Before streets in his Pittsburgh neighborhood would actually get a cleaning, enough tickets had to be issued to pay the street cleaners.

Philadelphia — You Gotta Love It — Or Maybe not

There was a story in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer that was almost impossible to believe unless you live in Philadelphia and drive a car. I live there and I drive a car. So I believe this story. It seems a woman got a $36 ticket for parking twice on the same street. It was legal parking. She just happened to leave the street on an errand, come back, and park again on the same street. And got a ticket. My town, Philly, has a great baseball team and in some years a pretty good football team as well. But when it comes to parking...

Philadelphia — You Have To Pay To Collect

When it comes to parking ticket revenue, cities are learning you have to shell out a bit to collect a lot more. This rule certainly applies to acquiring information about out-of-state drivers who run up ticket charges in your own community. The Philadelphia Parking Authority, for example, has been diligent in shelling out $7 a head to the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles to get information about New York drivers who get ticketed in Philly. But New York City has long refused to pay Pennsylvania's own motor vehicle office for similar information about Pennsylvania drivers who get tickets in Gotham — and lost a lot of money in consequence. That has just changed, however, and New York City can now start collecting on thousands of overdue tickets run up in visits by Pennsylvania drivers. The city is coming up with the $5 a head tracking fee. Clearly, when it comes to squeezing the motoring public, cooperation among governments is growing. If only they cooperated better when it comes to providing services.

Philadelphia — Eating Its Own

We can't vouch for the truth of this tale. But it was related by a usually reliable person — at least when it comes to ticket matters. She reports that while feeding a meter in downtown Philadelphia, she chatted up a ticket slinger who was lamenting the fact that Philadelphia had quadrupled the cost to city employees (including slingers) who park in their employee parking lots. Even they, it seems, are now getting stiffed when it comes to predatory parking exactions. The lesson here: Every revolution eventually eats its own.

Philadelphia — Skewed Analysis

When Philadelphia increased its meter rates from $1 an hour to $2 an hour, something utterly predictable happened. Fewer people drove to downtown Philly — a very sad thing indeed for folks condemned to do business there. But did local parking officials apologize to local businesspeople? No, Sir. When the parking space vacancy rate rose from 2 percent to 17 percent because of the meter increase, local authorities claimed they had succeeded in making more Center City parking space available. Wow! What an achievement! When the Parking Authority with its games brings about a 100 percent parking space vacancy rate, they can close down the city altogether.

Philadelphia — Parking Deals In Cheesesteakland

This January Philadelphia raised the hourly price of its meters ($2.00 an hour in the City Center section of the city) and its parking fines ($51 in most parts of the city but $76 in Center City and University City). But if you plan to do a lot of parking in the priciest areas and are willing to do a bit of finagling, you can get some real bargains. Construction trucks can get a 6-month permit to park daily for four hours for a mere $100. If you open a fancy eatery, you can get a prime valet parking spot by a curb for $250 a year. And for reasons that seem incomprehensible to outsiders (and to most people in Philly as well), you can still park all day in the middle of some busy streets and never get a ticket.

Philadelphia — Defending The Homeland

Who can write a parking ticket? It depends on where you live. Only meter maids and their Ken doll equivalents can do it most cities. Where parking rights have been sold to private companies (as in Chicago) this task is performed by company employees. A couple of cities have even allowed vigilante types to ticket on private properties like off-street parking lots. But once again Parking Horrors' own home town, Philadelphia, leads the ticketing pack. In the land of cheesesteaks and the Phillies, employees of 11 different agencies sling the zingers. These include city cops, Parking Authority fine dispensers, transit and college campus police, and even some folks working for Homeland Security—the latter doubtless doing this vital task as part of their efforts to secure us from terrorists disguised as people who have parked at expired meters (feel safer now?).

Philadelphia — Where Some Of Your Parking Dollars Go

Looking for a well-paid job? How about being the honcho at a big city's parking authority? The head of Philadelphia's, according to press reports, earns $183,000 annually, which is more than either the Mayor of Philly or the Governor of Pennsylvania earns. Of course, parking authority heads bring in money for governments while mayors and governors just spend the stuff. Which is doubtless why so many Philadelphia drivers are so happy the head of their own parking authority is so well compensated.

Rhode Island

Tiverton — If It Looks Like A Tax and Smells Like A Tax...

As long as you don't call it a tax, it ain't a tax. That, at least, seems to be what officials in the town of Tiverton, R.I. are trying to peddle to local residents. Garbage pick up there is supposed to be covered by the residents' property taxes. But now the town says it isn't, and instead of increasing property taxes to pay for a new landfill, it will add on a dollar fee per small bag of garbage and a two dollar fee for a large bag. There are only two ways to avoid this cost, which will nick even small-time garbage producing residents an estimated $105 a year. You can drive your own trash to the land fill or simply stop producing garbage. Oh, there is one other way to beat this faux tax. Move out of Tiverton.

Tennessee

Memphis — Macho

Nashville — For The Love Of Learning

Since the middle of the 19th century, Nashville, Tennessee has been known as "The Athens of the South." This is because of the many institutions of learning located within its borders. One way Nashville continues to honor this noble tradition is how it handles parking for visitors to its main public library. A nearby parking garage will actually not charge any fees if you get its ticket validated while visiting that library and don't stay more than an hour. Not enough time to read "War And Peace," perhaps, but in these perilous ticketing times, a lot more civilized than in most other cities in this country — or around the world, for that matter.

Texas

Dallas — An Issue Of Class (And Local Taxes)

There's no valet parking by McDonald's or K-Mart outlets. These days you generally only find valet parking around fancy restaurants that charge fancy prices. So you have to wonder if allowing private companies to hog public parking spaces so that people with the money to eat in fancy restaurants don't have to walk very far to get to their tables is really a nice thing to do in a democracy. That question has been answered in Dallas and a number of other cities, however, with a resounding "money talks and the rich need not walk" approach. Beyond the flagrantly undemocratic nature of this approach, it has also put many smaller businesses in the areas where valet parkers rule out of business. One such small business owner in Dallas reported losing an estimated $150,000 over several years because people who would ordinarily patronize his establishment couldn't park near it. Bad for him. Not that good for Dallas either, since by being no longer in business he no longer pays local and state taxes.

Duncanville and Fortworth — Small City Red Light Turning Excess

Dallas — Booting And Bulletproof Vests In Dallas

Deep Ellum is an old warehouse district in Dallas that in recent years has become home to a lot of upscale shopping, fine dinning and entertainment. It's also a place where people who have parked in private lots have not infrequently been booted by large men wearing bulletproof vests who demand $100 or more to remove the boot or you end up taking a cab home. The city has just passed some new laws designed to stop this practice — most importantly, a law requiring lots that boot to issue receipts like the kind spewed out by high-tech parking meters. It was the bullet proof vests in the report that caught our interest, however. I reckon in a town like Dallas, where folks know the importance of going to dinner and a show fully armed, wearing bullet proof vests when planning to immobilize others' cars is a mighty prudent measure.

Houston — Making Amends, the Houston Way

A few days ago we reported how motorists in Houston were unable to get receipts from many of the city's new high-tech parking meters because these devices were out of order on account of paper jams, dead batteries, whatever. These motorists got parking tickets in consequence. In a friendly town like the Big H, however, the parking authority thinks it knows how to make amends when it comes to defective meters. Abused motorists first have to get the number of the meter and the time they parked there. Then call a number listed on the city's parking ticket site. After these complaints are checked to make sure you were screwed when you say you were screwed, Houston will not refund the money you still have to pay for this undeserved ticket. But it will send you a pass to park downtown free — one time. Another option, of course, is to pay the fine and never drive to Houston's downtown again, depriving the city and its merchants of badly needed revenue — the parkinghorrors.com recommended way to make amends for driving there in the first place.

Dallas — Death In The Afternoon?

Here's a story from Dallas, but it could come from almost anywhere in this holiday season. A guy in a parking garage was having a very hard time finding a place to park. Finally he saw a free space, but a woman was standing in it, saving it for another car that had not yet arrived to claim the prize. A shouting match ensued, and the guy in the car almost ran the woman over while pulling into the spot. Another altercation then ensued in which, happily, no one was hurt. A seasonal tip: If you encounter this kind of situation remember the Beatles tune and "Let It Be." Parking rage is no prettier than road rage, even though it's played out at a slower speed.

Houston — Texas Initiative

Talk about a clever way to boost ticketing revenues. Houston is really up to the mark on this one. A number of its new parking meters have been out of order. People put in money but don't get back receipts. And when they return to their vehicles and find a ticket on the windshield and complain, they're told they have to pay the ticket anyway because they can't prove they actually paid. Clever, clever, clever. And if the city rigs things so none of their high-tech meter marvels issues a receipt, then every driver can be squeezed out of ticketing money. Oops. Shouldn't have suggested that. Some people who work for parking authorities around the country monitor this site regularly and we don't want to give them ideas.

Fort Worth — Forgive And Forget

Some communities, most notably Fort Worth, Texas, long practiced a kind of informal statute of limitations when it came to parking tickets. In Fort Worth, for example, because local authorities thought storing ticket records was too costly, they destroyed records of these after two years. Wouldn't it be nice of all communities adopted this approach to ticketing? They do it for many serious crimes and even for certain taxes. Except for a few forgiving bright lights of municipal wisdom and compassion, however, authorities in most places can pester and hound you forever themselves or through collection agencies.

Fort Worth and Duncanville — Small City Red Light Turning Excess

Sometimes the claims of parking officials are so out of whack with simple numbers that you wonder how they have the gall to lie with straight faces. Take the case of two Texas cities, Fort Worth and Duncanville. Both give out tickets for making turns at a red light without fully stopping. Fort Worth has 20 red light runner cameras. Duncanville has just 8. Fort Worth has a population of 720,000, while Duncanville's population is 36,000. Now here's the kinky part — last year Fort Worth issued 42,000 tickets for turning at a red light without making a full stop, while Duncanville issued 44,000. Which suggests that either this small Texas city has an inordinate number of color blind motorists, or it is using this premature turn on red as an excuse to rip off its drivers. Guess which explanation best fits the crime.

Greenville — Small Town Parking Vigilantes Proliferate

Parking Insanity isn't just a big city problem. Look what's going in a Greenville, a town of 27,000 that bills itself "the business hub of northeast Texas." Greenville is one of the growing number of communities across the country that now let private citizens give out parking tickets. The local Greenville organization to which these ticket slingers belong bears the cute monicker COPS (Citizens On Patrol), and its members can dispense tickets for four kinds of parking violations with fines that range from $20 to $255. Now lets try to be sane here. Would you allow private citizens to come to your home or place of business and at their own discretion hit you with a $255 freelance property tax assessment? Because that's what the COPS of Greenville are really doing.

Fort Worth — What A Deal—Maybe

You can park in downtown Fort Worth after 6 p.m. for free. Not only don't they ticket expired meters after this hour, you can also use some private parking lots in the area at no cost. How come? Because there's a special tax the city assesses that's supposed to be used for infrastructure improvements, but according to news reports, most of it actually goes into the pockets of local private lot owners — so people can park their cars free after 6 p.m. Is there something wrong with this deal? Well, not if you happen to own one of these parking lots.

Austin — Dirty Windshield Politics?

In a past news tidbit we reported how phony tickets put on windshields were scams to cheat people out of money. But phoniness has other uses as well. In Austin, Texas a candidate running for a local office had ticket look-alikes put on windshields that told recipients another candidate would make them pay for on-street parking weekends in the area they were now parked. Dirty politics? Not by Texas standards. And at least it made parking an issue in local elections, which, alas, it usually isn't.

Dallas — A Ticket Quota? How Can You Think That?

Under a contract with the city, Dallas' ticket givers must give out more than 198,000 zingers a year to win an extra $6 million payment. City officials insist, however, this isn't a quota. "It's a...a...a...something else," one official was recently heard to explain.

Houston — Dubious Local Government Parking Award

Officials in Houston have actually bragged about the innovation they introduced into the world of parking a few years back. They claim to be the first city to let security guards, parking lot attendants and other assorted private parties give out municipal approved parking tickets. Today, more than 400 of these volunteer, Ramboesque ticket slingers walk the streets and mall parking lots of the Big H. Can you imagine actually bragging about something like that? It's kind of like bragging that you're the original herpes sufferer, and spread your originality around the nation. Merely for saying this we are giving Houston our first Dubious Local Government Parking Award.

Austin — Fighting Pollution The Free Meter Way

While the federal government is encouraging drivers to buy vehicles that get better mileage with a "cash for clunker" program, some cities around the country are doing their pollution-fighting bit in a very different way. Salt Lake City is the latest jurisdiction to give free meter parking to cars that exceed a certain mileage standards or are alternative fuel powered. Albuquerque, New Mexico and Austin, Texas are among the other cities that have similar programs—programs whose only defect is that if a ticket slinger doesn't recognize the exceptional nature of these clean air vehicles, or ignores the ID tag that occasionally are appended to them, a driver can still face hours of hassles getting a ticket cleared.

Utah

Provo — Parking Science Marches On

A new ticketing system in place on Provo, Utah and a dozen other cities around the country has some interesting features. Perhaps the most interesting is this: You can not only pay fines online, you can appeal your ticket online with a parking officer. Think of it! You no longer need to you see a human judge to complain. No longer need you even encounter another human at a facility associated with a parking authority. In Provo you can now appeal to a nameless, faceless, distant entity who might or might not even be human. Can 1984 be far behind?

Salt Lake City — Fighting Pollution The Free Meter Way

While the federal government is encouraging drivers to buy vehicles that get better mileage with a "cash for clunker" program, some cities around the country are doing their pollution-fighting bit in a very different way. Salt Lake City is the latest jurisdiction to give free meter parking to cars that exceed a certain mileage standards or are alternative fuel powered. Albuquerque, New Mexico and Austin, Texas are among the other cities that have similar programs—programs whose only defect is that if a ticket slinger doesn't recognize the exceptional nature of these clean air vehicles, or ignores the ID tag that occasionally are appended to them, a driver can still face hours of hassles getting a ticket cleared.

Virginia

Arlington County - With Improvements Like This...

Until early this year if you got a parking ticket in Arlington County, Virginia you had to do a two-step to appeal it. You first had to appear in person at a police station to get an appeal court date, then actually show up in court. Now, however, after numerous complaints, the county has appointed its own staff people who will hear complaints, and if they think these have merit nullify the fine. This change was made in the name of "better customer service," a curious designation since someone getting an undeserved ticket isn't a customer but a victim. More to the point, replacing an inconvenient system leading to a hearing before an impartial judge, with a system that lets a representative of the ticket-govers act as judge, ain't that big an improvement.

Washington

Seattle — After Hours Predators

This is a story from Seattle, Washington, but it could have come from many U.S. cities today. A woman parked her car in a restaurant's lot near its closing time and went off to briefly visit someone in the neighborhood. She returned to find her car had been towed. A posted notice said the place it was towed was just a mile away. She went there and got hit with a $250 towing charge (for less than a mile's towing), a $40 storage charge (for less than an hour of storage) and another $40 fee because the whole thing had been done after the restaurant's own closing hour. The towing outfit that assessed this outrage, she discovered, had a contract with the restaurant that got a share of its takings. The tower simply cruises its lot and pounces the minute the restaurant closes. This game is getting played more and more all around the country. By restaurants, retailers, and even banks. Beware. 

Seattle — The Wrong Kind Of Ticket Protest

Seattle — Good While It Lasted

For many years you could park free on Seattle streets on the day after Thanksgiving ("Black Friday"), or on other fridays before a holiday that fell on a weekend. Then eager beaver ticket slingers gave out a bunch of tickets on these days, some recipients who knew the city's laws better than the city went to court, and they collected $700,000 in a class action suit. The city then had a choice: Don't ticket on these days again, or change the law so they could ticket on these days. Not surprisingly, they opted for the latter. Why be nice, after all, if it costs you some money?

Seattle — Free Parking Is So, So 2002

Before 2003 you could park in downtown Seattle without feeding a meter, much less buying a parking pass from one of the au courant pay stations. Now you can't, to the delight of city officials who have sucked up millions in additional revenue. Now these worthies are also considering whether to do away with free parking in this area on weekends and after six. Their attitude seems to be that nothing owned or run by the city should be without a price tag. Paying for public library book take outs, and for emergency visits by police and fire personnel, may be just around the corner.

Seattle — An Unmoving Parking Violation

Can a moving violation be a parking violation? Yes, at least in Seattle. Local laws say drivers caught on camera going through a red light are subject to the same fines as "other parking infractions," but no specific parking infraction equivalent is named in the law. So then, how much should be charged for this heinous crime? A sum equal to the city's lowest cost real parking infraction — $25? To the average parking infraction cost in the area — $40? No. Seattle decided to go with a $125 cost that is much closer to its priciest parking fine for the disabled. And with the number of cameras generating red light runner fines jumping from 4 to 30 in Seattle in the last three years, the folks in big rain country can look forward to a lot more $125 surprises in the mail.

Seattle — Disability Vigilantes

All right. Using someone's else's disability tag to get a parking space reserved for the disabled when you're not disabled yourself is not a nice thing to do and should lead to a fine. But even the U.S. Constitution sets limits on cruel and unusual punishments. So when Seattle recently raised its fine for this offense from $38 to $250 (even for first time offenders) it seemed a tad excessive. And when the Wisconsin legislature proposed raising fines for this offense for state licensed vehicles from $300 to $500 it seemed to have clearly crossed the line. But when Massachusetts actually went so far as to set up a formal reporting mechanism, complete with write-in forms, whereby anyone could report "an able bodied person misusing a disability placard or handicap plate," we definitely passed through the looking glass. A Parking Horrors note to the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles which is distributing these vigilante forms: disabilities come in many varieties, and not all disabled people crawl around on all fours between epileptic fits, which makes citizen health judges and reporters a badly flawed way to solve the disability parking abuse problem.

Washington, D. C.

D. C. — The K Street Blues

D. C. — Maybe If We Beg

It's upsetting to see people becoming violent toward ticket givers. They're just doing their job, a rotten job, and don't deserve the extra hassles of dealing with someone whose temper is out of control. But it's almost as upsetting to see people actually grovel before ticket-givers, as if they were something other than agents of often predatory parking authorities. Groveling was on display in an Internet post we came across recently, a post that advised motorists who see a ticket giver in Washington, D.C. just beginning to write a ticket. "Be respectful and plead mercy," this advisor wrote. Be respectful? Plead mercy? Good Lord. Has it come to this?

D. C. — Up, Up And Away!

And you thought Road Runner was fast. In Washington, D.C., the capital of this country and one of its biggest parking ticket generators, a visitor not so long ago was seated at an outdoor cafe, just 10 feet from the curb where he had parked his car. After finishing his meal he walked to the meter by this vehicle, saw it had a minute or two of paid time, and returned to say goodbye to his date. This took about two minutes. When he returned to his car there was a ticket under the wiper. The person issuing this ticket was also no longer on view. Yes, the experience was costly. But even the man who got the ticket reportedly expressed admiration for the dispatch, and indeed the panache, of the person who wrote it up. Now if only the rest of the local government, and its congressional Big Brother, were nearly as efficient.

D. C. — Something In Washington Worse Than Congress?

You think you know the most grasping and cash-strapped institution in Washington, D.C? Think again. It's not Congress. It's that town's own insolvent local government — a government that's hitting motorists very, very hard to raise some cash via parking ticketing. The cost of a typical parking ticket in this bizarro berg is scheduled to rise from $50 to $100 this December. If you don't pay this fine within 30 days the fine is doubled. If you have two outstanding parking tickets they tow (at a cost to you of $100), or boot (at a cost to you of $75). And if they tow to a lot there's a $20-a-day storage fee on top of everything else. And about that other grasping and cash-strapped institution in Washington — Congress. They don't have to worry about these costs. They have free reserved places to park their own vehicles.

D. C. — Good Bye To Human Adjudicators

The right to face your accuser in open court? Oh, please. That went out when it came to parking tickets many years ago, when in most places the issuance of the ticket was itself deemed legal proof it was issued appropriately, and the issuing ticket slinger therefore didn't have to be present when a ticket was contested. But at least aggrieved motorists could still lodge their protests with a real person. But that's no longer true in Washington, D.C. and Boston, where they have now abolished in-person adjudication. Today you can only protest a ticket in these big ticketing towns by mail or email. Which means ticket protesters no longer even have the satisfaction of seeing a ticket adjudicator look embarrassed when he or she says you have to pay a $100 fine both of you know you didn't deserve.

D. C. — Congress Fosters Leadership — In Its Own Way

Some folks think contributions to a congressmen's favorite charity are wasted — or even worse, are a backhand way of buying influence. Not so. Look at how Charlie Rangel, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has used some of the money given to his leadership political action charity. More than $1,500 of these contributed funds were used to pay parking fines run up during his stay in Washington. If that doesn't help foster better leadership in this country, nothing will.

D. C. — Getting Zoned Out In The District

Along with legislators who come to Washington, D.C. to feign working for the public interest before becoming lobbyists and working more openly for special interests, there's a lot of folks who actually live and work in The District doing worthwhile things. And in doing so, they automatically become subject to one of the most predatory ticketing cadre in the nation, one that generated a reported $67 million last year in tickets and related fines and charges. The newest gambit being employed by this cadre promises to help boost that total in 2009. These parking enforcers now have a device with an alarm that goes off when encountering cars parked in a two-hour non-resident parking zone for more than two hours—even if a motorist has moved his/her car from one part of the zone to another in that period. Oh, brave new world that has such ticket increasing devices in it!

Wisconsin

Milwaukee — Fees Top Out But Fines Look Promising

Milwaukee, like so many other American cities, is desperate for revenue, But where, oh where, is it to come from? One obvious answer is the fees that city residents are assessed. After a new $20 fee on locally registered cars went into effect last November, however, and a $37 increase in garbage pick up fees took effect, local tolerance for steeper fees of any kind seems to have been reached. Thankfully (from the city's perspective) the fine potential as a revenue booster is still there to be tapped. An estimated $60 million (that number is correct) in unpaid parking tickets issued in Milwaukee as far back as six years ago await collection. Bring on the booters! Bring on the towers! Send out the collectors working on commission! Milwaukee wants your money, and you can bet your beers and sausages the city's nice guy collection act is coming to a close. 

Milwaukee — Collection Difficulties

The City of Milwaukee is owed almost $60 million on 124,540 unpaid parking tickets it has issued over the last six years. These are rather astonishing numbers for a moderate sized town of just 953,000 beer and sausage-loving people. Milwaukee would seem to have adequate tools to collect on these tickets. The State of Wisconsin will not only pull the registrations of non-payers, it will divert any state tax refunds due these non-payers to the city. Still, collections are hindered by a number of considerations recently described in a newspaper interview with the person in charge of Milwaukee's collection efforts. She noted that "... some of the unpaid citations are issued to vehicles whose owners have since died, are incarcerated, [or] are in bankruptcy...The ability to collect any of these citations is greatly reduced." True enough. Death, serving time in the slammer, or insolvency, do have a tendency to cut into collections.

Milwaukee — Ticketing Malice Achieves New Acme

Some stories about abusive behavior by parking authorities sound so awful, you think at first they have to be urban legends — until they appear in a major local daily and you realize they are true. Here's one such super horror tale from Milwaukee, a city whose name once evoked images of good beer and bratwurst. A few years back an older man on Social Security parked his unlicensed van in the driveway of a home then owned by his parents, a home he later inherited. He got tagged with a $50 fine. The fine went unpaid and over time was jacked up to $2,600. Then the county — this is not a dirty joke — then the county started foreclosure action on his $245,000 house. A $50 fine. A $245,000 home in foreclosure. Welcome to the new Milwaukee.