New Hampshire Meter Feeders

[KD5NRH]

Wow. Have you ever heard of property taxes?
That tax revenue (OMG THAT WORD!) is used to fund various and sundry governmental activities, such as... street maintenance.

Including the streets downtown.  Why, then, is a user fee OK for one street the users have already paid for but not for another?

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Coming to a town near you. Robocop
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2009364600_parkingstory21.html


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[cassandra and sara's daddy]

I can see how certain folks here identify with this
Here they are
 http://keene.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=3&clip_id=818


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[HankB]

Couple of years ago when I came out of the barber shop, cop was writing a ticket for the expired meter. I told him "Hey, give a guy a break I was only here for a haircut."

Cop kept writing.

"Dude, don't be a jackass, it's only expired for a couple of minutes."

Cop frowned at me and wrote up another ticket, this one for "parked too far from curb."

"Now I know why people call you PIGS. You really reek, you statist PIG."

Cop wrote up two more tickets (expired tag, expired inspection sticker) and put them on the windshield, too.

Having had enough of that, I walked around the corner to where MY car was parked and left the cop still writing up the car that had the "OBAMA 2012" sticker on it.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

In va I think they would get jacked for stalking
If someone didn't just jack em face to face


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[Ben]

"Remove the meters and put up "90 minute only" parking signs."

Gigglesnort!

A significant number of people don't feed the meters already. What makes you think that they'll obey an honor sign?

Works better than meters where I live. Both the city and the populace seem to like them better than coin meters, other than at the big public lots, which have all gone to self-serve credit card machines for parking.

[K Frame]

Including the streets downtown.  Why, then, is a user fee OK for one street the users have already paid for but not for another?

Obviously the nature of use of a residential area is different from a commercial area. Commercial areas draw people from the outside who are not residents of the community. So what you're saying is that they should get a free pass to use the community's services, and the residents should foot the bill 100%?

Yeah, who cares if their taxes go up to support the outlanders.

Nice.

Maybe they should get everything for free when in the community, such as gasoline, food, and products and services? After all, they're gracing the town with their very presence.

Extra nice.

[K Frame]

Works better than meters where I live. Both the city and the populace seem to like them better than coin meters, other than at the big public lots, which have all gone to self-serve credit card machines for parking.

Not sure where you live, but do you really think a program like that would work in Philadelphia? New York City? Boston?

Around here businesses with off-street parking have to tow cars on a regular basis because of freeloaders parking all day and trying to avoid parking in metered spots or in garages.

[MechAg94]

Seems to me that feeding the meters is still giving revenue to the city. 

With digital cameras cheap, setting up a ticket system which has the Meter Maid taking a photo of the car and expired meter would at least theoretically provide proof like a traffic camera. 

As far as statism, I am far, far, far, less concerned about overbearing local govt than my state or the Feds.  I can fix the first by just moving a few miles or shopping somewhere else.  The others can't be avoided so easily. 

[RoadKingLarry]

Somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning

[Hawkmoon]

Will they be able to do it this time without being molested and threatened with arrest?

That was tried here in Cincinnati, some grandmother was using her own money to feed people's meters and she got arrested by a police officer.

Same question for both: On what charge? Is there any law prohibiting putting money in a parking meter?

[brimic]

Well you might be all sad and pouty because you had to walk for your chicken and dumplings, but your tragic story is likely more than balanced out by numerous others who are patronizing the same establishment and who found parking right out front or around the corner.

See, life IS fair in a very generalized way.

Well sure that will work if you plan to take clients, dates, and visitors out to taco bell or burger king to eat. It isn't a big stretch to say that if you don't grease the proper palms, parking meters with short limits will start popping up around your business like poisonous mushrooms.

All levels of government from federal all the way down to the alderman or  hoa are magnets for petty tyrants.

Its interesting that the areas or communuties that are most notorious with the parking fine racket are generally the ones who are loosest with spending taxes on worthless social programs to buy the FSA votes. Coincidence?

[KD5NRH]

Obviously the nature of use of a residential area is different from a commercial area. Commercial areas draw people from the outside who are not residents of the community. So what you're saying is that they should get a free pass to use the community's services, and the residents should foot the bill 100%?

Considering the only place we ever had them was around the courthouse and city hall, I'm pretty sure 90% of the people having to feed them were residents.

[Ben]

Not sure where you live, but do you really think a program like that would work in Philadelphia? New York City? Boston?

Around here businesses with off-street parking have to tow cars on a regular basis because of freeloaders parking all day and trying to avoid parking in metered spots or in garages.

I live in a tourist city, and there's not a coin meter to be seen anywhere. As much as I complain about the commies here, they do manage to have well placed public lots and multi-story structures that pretty much eliminate problems because you have to go through a gate, and you get the first 75 or 90 minutes free. After that, they just start charging you a normal parking rate vs giving you a $50 ticket when you've exceeded your free time. Otherwise, a good portion of the tourist section streets are either "no parking" or free if you can find a spot.

[Boomhauer]

Around here businesses with off-street parking have to tow cars on a regular basis because of freeloaders parking all day and trying to avoid parking in metered spots or in garages.

I think I know somebody like that... I had to give him a ride to the impound lot...which he knew exactly where it was...because he was a repeat customer...he even knew the tow truck driver

[Hawkmoon]

When I was a youngster of single-digit age, the adjacent small town where we shopped (my town had no stores at all) had parking meters on all two of the primary streets. Merchants were unhappy when people got tickets for expired meters. So the police department started carry extra nickels on patrol. If a beat cop (they still had those, back then) saw an expired meter, instead of writing a ticket he just put a nickel in the meter. Very civilized.

Somewhere in time between then and now, they went one step beyond -- now they just don't have meters.

[lupinus]

I think I know somebody like that... I had to give him a ride to the impound lot...which he knew exactly where it was...because he was a repeat customer...he even knew the tow truck driver

And then said somebody drove directly from the impound lot to...a different posted lot.

[cordex]

Meters can serve a good purpose in regulating use of a limited resource as Mike points out, although these meter feeders are unlikely to have any real impact on that.  If their meter feeding gets to the point where people take advantage of their service too much (i.e., putting a quarter in the meter and parking all day), they will be unable or unwilling to continue.  Otherwise people will continue to behave as they would without the meter feeders.  People helping others avoid an expensive ticket by catching expired meters simply don't figure in any significant way in to the scarcity argument.

Whatever their political leanings, it is stupid that governments would want to punish them.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

You watch the video of them in action?


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[brimic]

I think I know somebody like that... I had to give him a ride to the impound lot...which he knew exactly where it was...because he was a repeat customer...he even knew the tow truck driver

One of the nearby cities that comes to mind  for bad examples, charges impound fees on victims of car theft. One of my coworkers had his $100 beater stolen, the cops found it later and charged him over $300 in towing and impound fees.

[cordex]

You watch the video of them in action?

The one in the original article?  Yes.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Try this one
http://keene.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=3&clip_id=818


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