Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Your Time Has Expired

Do you know what I really, really hate? Parking meters! I just hate them and I know it's only a lousy couple of bucks but I hate having to feed them. However, what really ruffles my feathers something out of the ordinary and makes me so angry is when I drive into town, park the car rush into a store or to some appointment, rush out to get back to the car and I see RED, that TIME EXCPIRED message across the meter. "Gotya." Arghhhhhh!!!!

But then what really makes me grrrrrr is what I fear most, that dreaded parking infringement notice stuck onto the windscreen. "Make My Day!" I curse. I mean every now and then you just can't help it when you're a few minutes late but sure enough those darn parking officers will be near your meter when it expires!!! Arghhhhhh!!!!!

What all cities should do is introduce what they did on the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise in Queensland, Australia. There, good Samaritan meter maids patrol the streets and feed expired parking meters to save mere mortal and hapless shoppers a potential parking fine. So, rather than come out and explode at the site of a parking fine stuck on your windscreen, you see a good samaritan Meter Maid feeding your parking meter.







Interesting Reads:
Credits:
  • The Hate: Jean-Marc, Toronto, Canada
  • Expired Parking Meter pix: Ryan Vinson, Clarksville, TN, United States
  • Meter Maids pix: The Gold Coast Bike Week Site

19 comments:

Blueyes said...

well as entertaining as that might be for some i doubt it would be plausible for most cities lol

It would be nice if they had parking meter charges like in one of the beach areas, you grab a ticket from a centralized meter and put it in your car window and then when you leave, you put that ticket back in the centralized meter and pay whatever it tells you that way you never have an expired meter.

Jana Vent said...

I would imagine that many wouldn't pay so how do they police this....Isn't the principle of most meters is that you pay at the start and not at the end?

Blueyes said...

its a parking lot with those entrance/exit levers, if you dont pay you dont get out

Jana Vent said...

OK Blueyes now I understand...I had it in my mind that in your original comment you were talking about one of those now ubiquitous parking meters as shown in the pixs.

Anonymous said...

Skimpy gold bikini clad gals wearing not much more than a cowboy hat and putting money into expired parking meters to stop us folks getting fined is a great idea.

Arthur

Anonymous said...

I'd say that most drivers would have a parking-related horror story to tell and most of us have been caught with no change when we've been in a hurry to park. I recall the time when I filled a city meter giving me an hour's time but when I returned I had a parking ticket, even though I timed it that I was only gone 57 minutes!

I reckoned I was short-timed so I rang the telephone number on the meter and gave them the meter's number. They said that they'd check the accuracy of the meter out and get back to me. A couple of weeks passed but then I received a letter telling me that they had cancelled the infringement. I wonder how many other poor souls just paid their fine!!!

Chris

Anonymous said...

Great site...

Yes parking meters are a pain but it's also a real pain when you're in a hurry, as you usually are, and can't find a parking spot.

Brenda

Anonymous said...

I love it, I moved to kamloops from Calgary, and the price for a meter is so much less, I mean if you have a quarter in your pocket your good to go, not like the 2 miinutes you may be able to buy, which would get me to the intersection and back. That said, $1, will get you through anything you possibly need to take care of in this smaller city of Kamloops.

PS. Wish we had meter maids like that in this town! I would willingly get tickets to get a fine from one of those fine ladies.

Branden
Nubbit.com

St0ne said...

it's a part of queensland I missed last time I was there, maybe next time.

theWatchList said...

I usually can avoid parking near a meter. One thing I do hate though is when you go to a damn seminar hosted by a university that tells you to park in Such and Such parking log (that is marked with a sign for the seminar) supposedly for free, only to find out that you get a $40 parking ticket when the day is over.

Tom said...

Cool post. I think everyone hates parking meter people unless they're dressed up as a pornstar or your favorite cowboy. My friend posted about parking services on campus a while ago. You can check it out at Parking Meter Post
Whelp...

Anonymous said...

Paying for parking is one of my biggest pet peeves. I'll walk a quarter mile if I have to, just to avoid those stupid meters.

Fitech said...

"You know what really grinds my gears? This Lindsay Lohan. Lindsay Lohan with all those little outfits, jumping around there on stage, half-naked with your little outfits. Ya know? You're a... You're out there jumping around and I'm just sitting here with my beer. So, what am I supposed to do? What you want? You know, are we gonna go out? Is that what you're trying to - why why are you leaping around there, throwing those things all up in my, over there in my face? What do you want, Lindsay? Tell me what you want? Well, I'll tell you what you want, you want nothing. You want nothing. All right? Because we all know that no woman anywhere wants to have sex with anyone, and to titillate us with any thoughts otherwise is - is just bogus. "
-Peter Griffin

WagerWitch said...

In Anchorage we had a group of senior citizens designate themselves the "PARKING FAIRIES" and they would walk up and down the street, putting in quarters from donations, into the meters so that people wouldn't get fined.

It served several purposes:

They got exercise - Less people got fined - The excess donations paid for senior center items like new tables, games, tvs, etc...

But the city didn't like the fact they weren't making as much money as they could have from the fines.

I don't know what happened to the Parking Fairies, or if they still exist - but they were exceptionally awesome!


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Pikkel Weezel said...

Try Key West, Florida. What a scam they have going on there.

Jana Vent said...

Yes I agree Chris most would have a parking meter related horror story to tell and that's a great tip too.

Jana Vent said...

Oh that's awful thewatchlst. Surely the uni must cop the bill

Jana Vent said...

Come back Pikkel Weezel and tell us more about the scam in Key West, Florida.

Adam said...

I read in the Herald Sun today that motorists across Melbourne are being slapped with a parking fine every 23 seconds! Cash-strapped Melbourne councils handed out $83.6m in fines in the 12 months to June 30. According to the report, with the median fine about $60m that means 1.4 million fines were handed out, 3818 a day, 159 an hour, 2.65 a minute. A fine every 23 seconds!