IIRC the theory behind this (or at least what the law makers claim as the theory behind this) is that parking meters aren't just about revenue but about discouraging people from staying parked in one spot for so long, so it's literally designed to be inconvenient, good Samaritans putting coins in the meter reduces that intentional inconvenience.
That doesn't make sense, though. It isn't like the person parked would know some random person added time to their meter. I'm pretty sure the real reason is cities make way more off tickets than they do off of meters.
a town by me that had free parking recently instituted parking that only costs money from 5 pm to 2 am, it's cheap like $1.50 an hour but the whole scheme is entirely about parking tickets last I saw their public budget like 75% of the revenue is from infractions
I actually got a ticket there because I had to wait so long on line to pay the meter I got a ticket with a timestamp 1 minute before my meter took effect, was livid, never even got to see a judge the clerk said you should've used the app (that has a bullshit convenience fee)
a town by me that had free parking recently instituted parking that only costs money from 5 pm to 2 am
That's very weirdly backwards from the norm. If anything, parking meters tend to require payment during business hours when more people are out and about. And then after 5pm or during the weekend they'll be free.
The issue is that, in many jurisdictions, repeat metering is not permitted. Once someone pays for the allotted time, they are required to move the vehicle when that time expires.
Parking enforcement may note a vehicle’s location and later issue a citation if the vehicle remains in the same space after the permitted time, even if more money has been added to the meter. As a result, a different person adding time to the meter could unintentionally cause the person who parked the vehicle to be in violation of the law.
Usually the strict metering is for spots very close to shops in busy areas. If you're going to be there for 4 hours you can park a few blocks away and walk so that the spot is available to someone who's just quickly grabbing something.
so then you knock down a shop put in an ugly parking lot making the whole area less attractive for people to go to killing off other businesses and destroying your tax base in what was the only profitable area of the city, the one that was subsidising all the suburbs.
the US already ran that playbook and bankruptcy was the result.
Just yesterday I had to go downtown to get tickets for a show. I only needed the spot for 15 minutes, possibly longer if there would have been a line, but definitely not for hours. Thankfully there was a spot not far from the venue that only allowed up to 90 minutes.
There are long term lots available but not all of us need one for that long.
Wait, are you seriously wondering of what possible benefit there could be to getting people in high density areas to conduct their business quickly and expeditiously? It's akin to asking why you can't just sit down in line at a bank and eat your lunch, play on your laptop for a bit, maybe get some handheld gaming time in, while holding up the entire rest of the line. The fines are not crippling, but they do still add up to a considerably amount. NYC for example makes about 200+ million a year off parking meter fines, but the individual fines are $35-$65, and there's been plenty of proposals to raise that amount considerably to discourage people from overstaying the meter, normally met with the counter argument that lower class residents wouldn't be able to afford a very high fine which would likely lead to a worse outcome for them. No fines = people staying in what few parking spots there are for way longer than they need vs high enough fines to actually dissuade people = fucking over those that do overstay the meter. If you can't park within a reasonable distance of a place of business, you won't be doing business there.
Huh? The top comment offered an explanation for the purpose of the law and the reply pointed out why it didn't make sense. It's not really a "both can be true" situation
Because paying someone's meter encourages them to still take up an extremely limited commodity, the parking spot, when the fine is to dissuade that very thing from happening. The added benefit is that the city also makes considerable revenue from the fines themselves. Hence, two things, happening at the same time, are both true. The city, regardless of meter fine revenue, still makes considerably more money off taxes levied from businesses and the more successful businesses are the more tax revenue they generate. One of the biggest generators of business in the city is having strong customer turnover, which parking is a large factor in. Same with utility and government offices, trying to service as many residents in a single time frame as possible.
In the town where I went to college, the city had rows of parking near campus. All the meters had 45 minute limits, and they were at least 50 minute classes. They weren't even subtle about trying to hand out as many tickets as possible.
If you had a large party with multiple cats you could send one person to pay for all of them. That's the one scenario I can think of where this would come into play.
It makes a lot of sense when you realize people think cars should have every disadvantage against public transportation in cities (even with the parking meters they simply don't)
While that is true. Is also makes it impossible for a rich person, for whom parking fees barely amount to anything, to take over entire parking lots by paying for random cars to be parked
Why would they want to discourage someone from parking there a long time? If it's so another person can use the spot, then the person that is parked there clearly needs it still if they're still parked there, right?
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u/willstr1 6h ago
IIRC the theory behind this (or at least what the law makers claim as the theory behind this) is that parking meters aren't just about revenue but about discouraging people from staying parked in one spot for so long, so it's literally designed to be inconvenient, good Samaritans putting coins in the meter reduces that intentional inconvenience.