lol: Chicago's Privatized Parking Meters Are An Epic Failure

[waggy]

Originally posted by: Fox5

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Holy crap, 28 quarters? That's 7 bucks just to park lol.

And it's hilarious that they are getting too full LOL. You'd think they would of really planned this out better.

I'd expect to get most of the day in a parking garage for $7.

shit your nuts.

in chicago its like $30-60 a day for a parking gararge (this was 6 years since i been in)

i read once the new rate for parking meters is like $6 an hour

 

[Steve]

I parked at a meter last Saturday, and it was 15 minutes/quarter. I put in four quarters, but it only showed me the first 15 minutes. I called the number on the meter, gave them the meter number and location, and they took my name, cell number and license plate number and said they would forward it to the city so I could avoid being ticketed.

I got a ticket anyway, so I called the same number back and told them. They told me to contest the parking ticket with the ticket number (of my defective meter report) they submitted to the city. I'll take a look at that tomorrow. I'm too sick to think.

 

[Auryg]

I'm so glad I don't live in a big city. I thought paying 5 dollars for a few hours in Madison was ripping me off when I went there. You shouldn't have to pay to park, period.

 

[Itchrelief]

Originally posted by: Joemonkey

Originally posted by: Platypus

Originally posted by: Fox5

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Holy crap, 28 quarters? That's 7 bucks just to park lol.

And it's hilarious that they are getting too full LOL. You'd think they would of really planned this out better.

I'd expect to get most of the day in a parking garage for $7.

lol more like 20-30 bux

seriously? man you guys are brainwashed, 20-30 $ for a DAY's worth of parking? i heard chicago was crazy over population density, but still, that's nuts

i have never paid for a toll or parking spot my business did not reimburse me for

I'm sure to a guy in a third world country, a lot of things you pay for seem nuts.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Originally posted by: arrfep
That's okay, at least our taxes are going down this-- oh, wait, nevermind.

Good one. :thumbsup:

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: waggy
shit your nuts.

I'm trying to think of how that would be physically possible, and all I can imagine is pain

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: waggy
shit your nuts.

I'm trying to think of how that would be physically possible, and all I can imagine is pain

Worth a try.

 

[HannibalX]

Originally posted by: K1052
Yep, seen a ton of broken meters on the streets. When you have to dump an entire roll of quarters into one in order get anything longer than a few seconds they're gonna fill up fast.

The city should have made them get the cashless systems in place before raising the rates.

Good god, no. The cashless system is just horrible. Ask Londoners.

 

[zeruty]

Originally posted by: iFX

Originally posted by: K1052
Yep, seen a ton of broken meters on the streets. When you have to dump an entire roll of quarters into one in order get anything longer than a few seconds they're gonna fill up fast.

The city should have made them get the cashless systems in place before raising the rates.

Good god, no. The cashless system is just horrible. Ask Londoners.

Most Seattle meters accept credit card now, and they work just fine. There isn't 1 meter per 1 or 2 spots though, like 1 per side of street per block or something. You pay with cash or credit, get a sticker to put in your window, and if you have time left you can go park somewhere else on the street in Seattle and the sticker is still good...

 

[Ns1]

update

 

[Brainonska511]

Chicago's political leaders are a bunch of fucktards when it comes to running a city, especially highlighted when shit like this happens.

 

[Zolty]

Originally posted by: waffleironhead
i hate meters. i refuse to shop downtown(madison) because of the meters.

There is actually a fair amount of 2 hour parking on side streets in madison (Dayton, Regent ect.). There are also a ton of parking garages which charged about 1.25/hour when I moved a year ago. Besides why would you need to shop in Downtown Madison? The only reason to go is for is food or to get wasted. There are very few things that you can't buy on the east or west sides of town.

Also most of the spots are only metered during the day so if you go after 6 parking is free.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: zeruty

Originally posted by: iFX

Originally posted by: K1052
Yep, seen a ton of broken meters on the streets. When you have to dump an entire roll of quarters into one in order get anything longer than a few seconds they're gonna fill up fast.

The city should have made them get the cashless systems in place before raising the rates.

Good god, no. The cashless system is just horrible. Ask Londoners.

Most Seattle meters accept credit card now, and they work just fine. There isn't 1 meter per 1 or 2 spots though, like 1 per side of street per block or something. You pay with cash or credit, get a sticker to put in your window, and if you have time left you can go park somewhere else on the street in Seattle and the sticker is still good...

You can pay for all meters here in Vancouver by using your cellphone. Works very well since you don't need change and they text you 5 minutes before it is going to expire.

KT

 

[mugs]

God I hate parking meters. They are SO bad for business. Important parts are in bold.

Wait, what? Would it be preferable that those spots be taken by people who would park there all day while at work? I can't imagine that being good for business.

Also, fuck the Consumerist.

 

[HopJokey]

Originally posted by: KeithTalent

Originally posted by: zeruty

Originally posted by: iFX

Originally posted by: K1052
Yep, seen a ton of broken meters on the streets. When you have to dump an entire roll of quarters into one in order get anything longer than a few seconds they're gonna fill up fast.

The city should have made them get the cashless systems in place before raising the rates.

Good god, no. The cashless system is just horrible. Ask Londoners.

Most Seattle meters accept credit card now, and they work just fine. There isn't 1 meter per 1 or 2 spots though, like 1 per side of street per block or something. You pay with cash or credit, get a sticker to put in your window, and if you have time left you can go park somewhere else on the street in Seattle and the sticker is still good...

You can pay for all meters here in Vancouver by using your cellphone. Works very well since you don't need change and they text you 5 minutes before it is going to expire.

KT

That's pretty cool.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: mugs

God I hate parking meters. They are SO bad for business. Important parts are in bold.

Wait, what? Would it be preferable that those spots be taken by people who would park there all day while at work? I can't imagine that being good for business.

Also, fuck the Consumerist.

I'd rather it be taken up by 1 hour max meters with reasonable rates.

consumerist is awesome 85% of the time

 

[Mo0o]

Ugh, quarter meters are retarded. Seattle has mostly transferred all its parking to sticker-based where you can pay cash/coin/credit card from a machine and just stick it to your car. Much more convenient than stuffing a shit load of quarters

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: mugs

God I hate parking meters. They are SO bad for business. Important parts are in bold.

Wait, what? Would it be preferable that those spots be taken by people who would park there all day while at work? I can't imagine that being good for business.

Also, fuck the Consumerist.

I'd rather it be taken up by 1 hour max meters with reasonable rates.

consumerist is awesome 85% of the time

So when you said you hate parking meters, you really meant you don't hate parking meters? :laugh:

Consumerist is no better than people like Rush Limbaugh. They can't see reality through their bias. They make knee-jerk reactions, they make sweeping generalizations about entire companies based on the actions of individual employees, and they don't even pretend to do any fact checking before they post information. You could get more worthwhile information about any consumer issue by posting on Anandtech; I'm pretty sure the Consumerist editors have learned just about everything they know from the comments section. The only thing the Consumerist is useful for is essentially blackmailing companies into giving you what you want by spreading your story to thousands of brainless college age kids and stay at home moms who are willing to boycott at the drop of a hat.

 

[dainthomas]

Originally posted by: zeruty

Originally posted by: iFX

Originally posted by: K1052
Yep, seen a ton of broken meters on the streets. When you have to dump an entire roll of quarters into one in order get anything longer than a few seconds they're gonna fill up fast.

The city should have made them get the cashless systems in place before raising the rates.

Good god, no. The cashless system is just horrible. Ask Londoners.

Most Seattle meters accept credit card now, and they work just fine. There isn't 1 meter per 1 or 2 spots though, like 1 per side of street per block or something. You pay with cash or credit, get a sticker to put in your window, and if you have time left you can go park somewhere else on the street in Seattle and the sticker is still good...

Portland has these and they suck. For one thing, rarely does anyone move from one spot to another so you eat the extra time, whereas before you sometimes got extra time from the car before that left early. So more money for the city that way. Secondly, it really sucks getting out of your car in January, walking half a block in a downpour, pulling out your card/cash (nope, doesn't take change) and messing around with the machine, THEN walking the half block back to your car (still getting rained on), opening it up to put the stupid sticker on THEN finally going where you want to go. Yep, lots of convenience and common sense there.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: mxyzptlk
overstuffed parking meters that nobody can be bothered to collect from... Why aren't the more enterprising criminals out every night knocking them over for cash?

Our mayor and aldermen prefer not to get out of their hired cars to rob the citizenry blind. After all it is still kinda chilly out.

:laugh:

seems like they need to update the system by placing one of those payment machines that controls every 10 or 20 spaces. you pay the machine, it prints out a ticket for your car. use cash, coins, cc, whatever. Kind of silly that they spend so much money purchasing parking rights then do nothing to upgrade the infrastructure.

Though....I guess that sounds about right for business in Chicago. 😉

 

[clamum]

Originally posted by: Auryg
I'm so glad I don't live in a big city. I thought paying 5 dollars for a few hours in Madison was ripping me off when I went there. You shouldn't have to pay to park, period.

You and me both. I love small towns.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: zinfamous

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: mxyzptlk
overstuffed parking meters that nobody can be bothered to collect from... Why aren't the more enterprising criminals out every night knocking them over for cash?

Our mayor and aldermen prefer not to get out of their hired cars to rob the citizenry blind. After all it is still kinda chilly out.

:laugh:

seems like they need to update the system by placing one of those payment machines that controls every 10 or 20 spaces. you pay the machine, it prints out a ticket for your car. use cash, coins, cc, whatever. Kind of silly that they spend so much money purchasing parking rights then do nothing to upgrade the infrastructure.

Though....I guess that sounds about right for business in Chicago. 😉

Why would they do something that makes sense?

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Fox5

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Holy crap, 28 quarters? That's 7 bucks just to park lol.

And it's hilarious that they are getting too full LOL. You'd think they would of really planned this out better.

I'd expect to get most of the day in a parking garage for $7.

2 years ago, It was about $18 for 6 hours parking downtown Chicago. Early bird parking was maybe $22 for the entire day.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Joemonkey

Originally posted by: Platypus

Originally posted by: Fox5

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Holy crap, 28 quarters? That's 7 bucks just to park lol.

And it's hilarious that they are getting too full LOL. You'd think they would of really planned this out better.

I'd expect to get most of the day in a parking garage for $7.

lol more like 20-30 bux

seriously? man you guys are brainwashed, 20-30 $ for a DAY's worth of parking? i heard chicago was crazy over population density, but still, that's nuts

i have never paid for a toll or parking spot my business did not reimburse me for

where do you live, Tulsa?

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Auryg
I'm so glad I don't live in a big city. I thought paying 5 dollars for a few hours in Madison was ripping me off when I went there. You shouldn't have to pay to park, period.

In a big city? fuck no. Owning your car is a privilege, not a right. Esp. in a city like Chicago, where you should be taking public transit downtown.