Parking Meter

Parking is one tense front in cities' war on cars.

The city of Detroit is desperate for two things – revenue and savings. It needs to start making more money, and it needs to curb spending. What happens, though, when those two objectives run counter to each other? Well, you get a story like this one, where cost-saving measures are actually costing the city far more in lost revenue.

The city of Keene, N.H., has sued a group that feeds change into parking meters that are about to expire, saying members are harassing enforcement officers.

A lawsuit in New Hampshire, a state where they take their slogan – Live Free or Die – seriously, is setting the city of Keene against a group of citizens fighting "the violent monopoly" by putting money in the about-to-expire parking meters of strangers. The action is known as "Robin Hooding in Keene," and there are various ways in which practitioners do it. The specific activity that the city has a problem with is when the Robin Hooders follow the city's parking enforcement officers

Have you ever left your car at a metered parking spot, for just a few minutes too long, only to come back to a parking ticket? Have you ever wanted to yell at the parking enforcement officer? Well, as Jared Rapp found out, the practice is protected by the Constitution.

Just another day on another street in New York City: a meter reader and a random contractor shouting it out about a parking fine and the tardy insertion of a quarter. Unbeknownst to everyone, however, the contractor's partner is really, really not happy about getting this ticket. He doesn't shout because he's the strong, silent type. Instead, he lets his power saw do the talking for him.

Have you ever found yourself cursing at a parking meter because it wants $2.00 of your hard earned change? Residents of San Francisco do not feel your pain. A new demand-based system is getting ready to be tested, which, during certain special events, could drive the hourly parking rate up to $18.

We can officially quit our whining over our latest parking ticket. Across The Pond, London authorities have begun putting local drivers' feet to the fire and are raking in record fines as a result. One street even managed to pull down nearly £1 million ($1.6 million at current conversion rates) last year. That's especially shocking considering that the now infamous Clapham Park Roa

After circling block upon block in search of a rare vacant parking space, or scrounging for quarters at a blinking meter, many drivers may arrive at a common thought: There's got to be a better way of doing this. UCLA professor Donald Shoup, an authority on parking management and author of "The High Cost of Free Parking," agrees.

While paying for your parking meter using a cell phone is not a new thing, the Dutch city of Utrecht has announced a program that goes a step beyond. From April 1st 2010, citizens parking their cars in this city will need only a cell phone and their registration number connected to a nation-wide database. What's the database for? To download information into your GPS system to find the closest empty parking space to your destination, saving time and fuel, for one thing. For another, Utrecht has

Ever since the advent of the parking meter, there have been hoods cracking them open and stealing the coins inside. Historically, we're talking about nickels and dimes here, but while those can add up, this is a different ballgame altogether. A gang of criminals in Queensland, Australia, has been arrested for stealing a whopping $800,000 (in Australian dollars, or about $550k in American greenbacks) from local parking meters.

Have you ever rushed out of the office to feed your parking meter to find a friendly traffic cop writing you a sweet little love note? Wouldn't it have been nicer had the cop just called you to say, "Hey, just though you might want to throw a couple of quarters down my way." Sorry, not gonna happen.