Los Angeles Parking Rules: No Parking At 'Fail' Meters

New rules prohibiting the time honored tradition of parking at broken meters in Los Angeles, first reported yesterday by LAist, had the local blogosphere abuzz with gripes and misinformation. From the LAist report:

Last week Los Angeles' Department of Transportation began marking the new card & coin meters with a red sticker warning drivers that you must pay to park, no other way about it.

If the coin slot is jammed, pay with a credit card. If the credit card swipe won't register, pay with coins. If both don't work, too bad, find another space.

To address the flurry of concern, LADOT's Sr. Transportation Engineer Daniel Mitchell appeared on KTLA's Morning Show to explain the change in policy. Of particular note: the new regulations apply only to new meters accepting both coins and credit cards, parking at older meters with 'fail' messages remains ok as these are phased out.

Comments

[0x00000000]

03:01 AM on 09/10/2010

Sometimes I think the public is almost powerless to change things that are almost universally hated.

For example, I think it would be nearly impossible for the public to eliminate all parking meters, despite the fact that only a small number of people, a tiny fraction of the city population, favors parking meters.

And the public is powerless to set lower maximum rates for towing and storage for cars towed for parking violations. Who hasn't had their car towed at one time or another? Towing is more of a public nuisance than the circumstances towing is typically used to address.

Must the whole city council be voted out to even have a chance of eliminating parking meters? What would it take? It's an interesting question, no matter how you feel about this issue.

The general public might sometimes have instincts about particular issues that are contrary to what would actually be in their best interests, collectively and in the long term. For example, most people would gladly vote to abolish all taxes, speed limits, and smog checks. And maybe it could be proven that parking meters help more than they hurt.

If the primary motivation for parking meters and red-light cameras is to increase city revenue, then those things essentially turn what would have been uniform city-wide taxation to a weird kind of lottery where only a few unlucky souls pay a disproportionate amount to support the city government.

[TheAntiOkie]

08:26 AM on 09/09/2010

Parking meters were "invented" and introduced into society via Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  It's something about which many Okies are extremely proud.

Speaks volumes, doesn't it?

[flurryup]

02:52 AM on 09/09/2010

I live in Calif. Move here from the east coast. This is a very stressful place to live. The govt does more to harrass and inconvenience their citizens than any place I have ever lived. The rules are always against the average citizens. The govt. never takes any responsibility for their stupidity or lack of planning.

Revolt is on the way!

[DMSmith]

01:18 AM on 09/09/2010

Two things here: Making the citizen parker pay the price for the City's failure to maintain the meters is simply wrong - and wrong-headed.
And, the City needs the incentive to find and replace meters - loss of income offset by no ticket income.
For the citizens to pay the price and surely get worse service? Never!!!
My guess is they'll have some form of revolt on their hands - and they should have.

[aristippe]

12:54 AM on 09/09/2010

FOOK U DOT

[Berkeleylefty]

10:41 PM on 09/08/2010

Time to set up a "buyadummylatemodelparkingmeter.com" site and sell, sell, sell....

[zombywulf]

08:30 PM on 09/08/2010

So when all the meters are "broken" there will be no place to park. Whoever thought this one up needs some time in a re-education camp.

[Berkeleylefty]

10:43 PM on 09/08/2010

IQ's have dropped really fast at LADOT...

[liquidskycaptain]

07:46 PM on 09/08/2010

This action was taken by the LA DOT in response to the vandalism of parking meters by parking valet companies.

The valets tamper/break parking meters so they can park cars for free as long as they want (where do you think they are driving your cars when you go to your local restaurant or club?). As soon as the city repaired a meter it would be busted (i.e. by jamming a hair pin or foreign coin into the slot) shortly thereafter by the next valet parking attendant.

Their actions obviously caused a loss of income for the city, but it is also harmful to the other businesses who need turnover at the parking meters - instead the valets would just replace the parked car with the next valet driven car and so on.

This is why the city is replacing the old "fail" meters and replacing them with new credit card meters and with this new policy.

Blame the valets at your local restaurant.

[RatPack78]

01:02 AM on 09/09/2010

They're also replacing them because once you pull away from the space, the timer resets. No more remaining time when you pull up to a meter.

[JungleJo]

03:35 AM on 09/09/2010

AIn't that a bitch??

[Lost Angeles]

01:21 PM on 09/09/2010

Literally nickel and dimeing you and they still can't balance a budget. No wonder people have a "vote out any incumbent" sentiment.

[CaroleK1970]

07:35 PM on 09/08/2010

This is bad for businesses, If there is 1 spot in front of the business you need to go to but the meter is broke, you shouldn't be prevented from spending your money for goods or services if you cant find another meter. BAD MOVE.

[Fnordpocalypse]

06:28 PM on 09/08/2010

Soo lame. it's hard enough to find a parking spot, do we really need to fret over the loss of 75 cents? Pretty petty if you ask me. kinda like saying "If I cant have it, No one can".

[ThatGuyisaGirl]

06:44 PM on 09/08/2010

That's exactly what this is and it's flipping ludicrous.

[lachihuahua]

08:04 AM on 09/09/2010

Agreed! (nn)

[asterdarius]

05:42 PM on 09/08/2010

Small price to pay for access to Californian girls.

[gevan]

04:48 PM on 09/08/2010

People still live in cities with parking meters? Wow, who knew.

[twhiting9275]

04:58 PM on 09/08/2010

all cities have parking meters downtown, at least every city I've been in, and that includes larger and smaller cities, from Seattle, WA to Waterloo, IA. They've all got parking meters

[John Clayton]

07:33 PM on 09/08/2010

any city or place for that matter worth living in has parking issues its the price you pay in the big leagues gevan get out of the cave and see the world !

[JailNeoconVicts]

04:47 PM on 09/08/2010

Just another gift from our local officials to make life in LA even a little bit $hittier than it already is.

Thanks a bunch, a$sholes.

[twhiting9275]

04:40 PM on 09/08/2010

This should really go without saying. I mean, do we NEED this handholding?

[Hank007]

03:28 PM on 09/08/2010

Is the LA parking syndicate still run by a for-profit company from out of town? When I lived there, the parking n---s were the most corrupt organization I'd ever seen.