What's with the unreadable parking meters?

Thank you! I second this absolutely -- we went through this just a week ago at the library. I sometimes wonder if it's a deliberate attempt to increase ticket fees.

Peg,

Boy did you hit a nerve!!!

The cloudy glass is the least of the problems with the new meters. For over 2 years I've been calling in at least 1 failed meter per week to the police dept. I've also registered dozens of complaints (both verbal and by email) with the Town Manager regarding said meters taking funds and not registering the proper time.

Yet, the Town continues to commit negligent larceny on a daily basis. They know the meters are ripping off people every day and yet they have not fixed the problem in 2 years.

Were this a credit card company or a bank pilfering small amounts of monies from the masses, consumers would have recourse. In fact, any private institution engaging in this ongoing larceny would be subject to fines and forced to reimburse consumers. But since we are dealing with the most unaccountable institution ever invented (that being Government), we have no recourse. Phoned-in complaints and reports of failed meters get ignored, while 2 years worth of emails to a well paid chief executive have produced no change.

It appears as though the Town is more than happy to keep stealing money from motorists who simply want to park their car and go about their business.

Maybe we all should start posting every instance of this ongoing negligent larceny (including time, date, meter number, and location). Maybe we can finally embarrass the Town into fixing the problem.

I hate a "bad ticket" as much as anyone...but JD appears to have been victim to faulty meters more than anyone I have ever met in my lifetime.

I also seriously doubt the vast "left wing" conspiracy of the Watertown PD to fleece its residents out if their money through faulty tickets on bad meters.

JD I promise I'm more on "your side" than not in most of your arguments...but your campaign against this willful "negligent larceny"...has forced me to label you as "angry bitter guy" instead of "concerned citizen".

Maybe I am naive or maybe I am finally catching on after 2 years on this forum and 5 years as a resident of h20.

The Town Manager has nothing to do with police tickets. All tickets are appealable. If you have been victimized so much by this then it would seem to me your pictures and well documented injustice would have given you a greater forum for proof of this miscarriage of justice than your reply above.

Why dont you post your pics and messages and examples here to add some credibility to your post? You normally have somthinig more substantial to backup your comments...think you swang and missed this time.

Dear CDwight,

(For the purposes of clarity, while I share former Councilor Donohue’s initials, I’m not known by them. So for the sake of not causing confusion, please don’t refer to me as JD)

First of all, if you bother to read my statement, I never once mention getting parking tickets. I did mention that the meters take your coins and do not register the proper time.
For example; to get 2 hours it should cost you $2.00 in quarters. But the meters will, more often than not, take 5 or 6 quarters before registering 2 hours. This means that on a daily basis people are being overcharged for parking.

To my knowledge; this is as much a DPW matter as it is a Police enforcement matter. The police enforce the parking laws; the meters are maintained by DPW.

The Town Manager is in charge of every single department in the Town. He is responsible for daily operation of the Town.

The Town Manager has been repeatedly informed that there is a problem with the parking meters by this citizen, as well as others.

Despite several notifications the Town Manager has not managed to get his Department Heads, whom he hand picks and whose salaries he determines, to fix this problem.

One can imagine how fast these meters would have been fixed if they were registering too much time for the money!!!!

The Town’s continued laxity (2 years now) in fixing this problem constitutes a defacto larceny!

As for documentation, every time I call a failed meter in to the police, the dispatcher informs me that the call is recorded. As for the plethora of emails I’ve sent to Mr. Driscoll on the subject, they were sent to the Town’s server, hence the record of complaints should be preserved.

It is important to note that Mr. Driscoll has not denied the problem exists. It’s just that after 2 years he hasn’t managed to get the departments he oversees to fix the problem.

Since this topic has returned, I have to again post my rant on the subject - THE GRAY'S LOT METERS ALWAYS EAT MY QUARTERS! Yup, that's right, they rip me off! Almost every weekend, CD! So maybe John is an angry guy, but I'm kind of a marshmallow and those meters have me spitting nails. They went and raised the rates - doubled, in fact, then installed faulty meters that rip you off for another quarter at least 50% of the time. And like Peg says, you can't see through the window, either. They really stink, and talking to "The Parking Ninjas," as I call them, has no effect. I am glad John is calling Town Hall and quacking about it because at least someone is.

Whining an moaning can only do so much. It's time we took action! Rise up against the oppressive capitalist overlords at town hall! I say we stage a direct action campaign against the parking meters - a massive demonstration to strike fear into the hearts of those who will swipe our quarters! With banners raised high, we'll chant "Nickels, Dimes, and Quarters - Down with the Hoarders!". We'll lie in the path of the parking enforcement officer - form an impenetrable human chain surrounding the CVS parking lot; no one in, no one out - if the meters stop producing, they'll be forced to fix them to end the picket. Viva Revolution!

Or we could write an angry letter to the TAB.

Hey Jake,
Maybe we could get Barak Obama involved. He's the candidate of change ;>0 (Sorry couldn't resist-- and before you guys jump on me, I've praised Obama on this blog, although I don't agree with him on much)

All kidding aside: This is not just about a couple of nickels.

On average I'd say the meters eat between $1.50 and $3.00 per week from me without giving me time. Do the math. It adds up to $50 to $150 per year.

The point is; there is no justification for this. Especially since, the town just spent a bunch of money for these bloody meters that don’t work!!!!!!
It's been 2 years now. I've tried to get the Administration to do something by approaching them privately. I exchanged several friendly emails with the T.M. Yet nothing has been done. Well, if the back channels ain’t gonna work, then I’ll sharpen my poison plume and use it to embarrass the Town into fixing the problem!

Think about it, when a bank gets caught overcharging with dubious service charges, courts order them to pay a fine and provide some kind of restitution. I'm just one victim. How much is the Town stealing from everyone else? And to top it off they have the audacity to put a 2-hour limit on 8 hr meters that are failed. So if you need to park for 3 or 4 hours and the damn meter gets stuck on 1.5 or 2 hours, you've got to go find another space, find more quarters and lose all the money you've put in the original freaken meter.

If this were a private company, they'd be fined and forced to pay restitution!

Parking meter 379 C.V.S. lot ripped me off for another 45 cents. We should all start keeping a ledger and deduct the entire amount from our excise tax. Maybe then they'll do something about it.

Parking meters just seem so... old fashion. There's got to be a better way. Something that's cheaper for the town, less prone to mechanical failure, and doesn't require quarters!

If it doesn't exist already, someone needs to develop a new system for parking payment. Here's an idea - now it may be a little far-out, but bear with me. Assign each spot an individual number, then when someone parks there, they whip out their cell phone and text message (or some other cell-based application), the number of the spot and the amount of money to "feed the meter". This would connect to some computerized system that would apply that amount of money to the spot in question and keep track of it in a database. It could then send a response back to the person confirming that the spot is paid up and how long they have.

You could do some cool things with this. For instance, if you take longer than you expected, no need to run out to feed the meter - just text in some more money. The system could even be set up to alert people when their spot was about to expire. Or notify the Parking Ninja when a spot is about to go over.

For those old fogeys without a cell phone, you could set up a machine somewhere in the parking lot that would allow people to pay for their spot with cash - but still keeping track of it on a computer so there's no need to go put a ticket on your dash board (a la Belmont).

The cost of parking could be applied at the end of the month on people's cell phone bills in the same way you are charged for ringtones, etc. today.

Now I could never really see this happening - at least not in the near future, but there are some advantages to a system such as this. Less equipment to maintain, added convenience to the customer, ability to monitor the lot more closey, reliability of the equipment, and fewer complaints from John (oh, who am I kidding :-) ).

Until they can find a way to bring parking lots into the twenty-first century, we'll continue to have these problems. Really, the digital meters are just a fresh coat of paint on an older-than-dirt idea. And by the sounds of it, it isn't even good paint.

I work in telecom.

You will be able to pay for many many things in the immediate future (it actually already exists in some areas now) by simply pointing your cell phone at soda machines, parking meters, grocery scanners etc...this will be very common in a matter of years.

Especially since pointing my middle finger at the meter doesn't seem to do anything.

Places that already use it below:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4531-10921_7-6515591.html
http://www.sfgov.org/site/sf311csc_index.asp?id=67966
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3702984.html

And here I am thinking I'm all /original/ and /innovative/. Oh well, missed the boat on that one. I guess I'll just have to invest in a massage parlo- I mean, massage therapy business. ;-)

Doupleplusgood that the assistant director of parking management in Houston is named "Rambo". Must keep the whinebags at bay. Complain about busted meters and she'll tear your spine out with her elbow.

*edit* corrected spelling of Y-A-C-H-T... also reminds me to upgrade to FF 2 for built-in spellchecking goodness :-)

Parking Meter # 74 (located on Spring St., ironically in front of one of those “massage therapy” businesses Jake seems to be interested in) pilfered 25 cents of my hard-earned wages today (1:30 PM, Tuesday March 4th 2008 Anno Domini)
Hmmm! Maybe I should try to force the Town into paying for massage to relieve the stress induced by their failure to A) buy good equipment to begin with, B) fix the bloody equipment in a reasonable time frame.

In an effort to keep you all appraised I will post every meter that pilfers money. I encourage the rest of you to do the same

Peg,

We should probably catalogue every instance for a few weeks and then ask to be put on the agenda.
Regarding the cloudy meters, I haven’t run into that problem with the new electronic meters, have you? If it’s only the old meters, I assume they are going to be replaced.

But getting a group of us to follow up and raise awareness on this issue is great idea.
As I’ve posted there are a lot peripheral issues with surrounding these meters.

I’m very concerned about the purchasing procedure and the related product quality assurance process, if any.

We spent a ton of money for meters and they don’t work. AND, If I’m not mistaken the meters were installed by the Town, so there are labor related costs. The Town should be seeking to recover the cost of the meters and labor from the vendor.

But all that stuff can wait. The first order of business is to get the bloody things fixed.

Today at 2;17PM C.V.S. Municipal Lot -- Parking meter # 394 stole 50 cents.
I called it in to DPW, the person who answered the phone sounded like she thought I was from another planet.

I then said, what the heck there are other spaces so I moved down to meter# 399. This meter was more generous it only pilfered 25 cents. I didn't bother to call this one in. I imagine they will both get the same amount of attention; that is NONE !!!!!!!!!!

These meters all need to be changed and the vendor should be sued.

Meter 316 (corrected from 116) in the Gray's Lot behind Tresca's robbed me of $ .50 on Saturday! It was my last $ .50! I was going to buy food to feed my starving children! Well, that's not true, but the meters rob me of about $ .50 a week so what's that, like $26 bucks a year? They rot! I want my $26 bucks!

I wonder if my story would have had the same happy ended had it taken place here in Watertown.

Last Friday, I parked in the big municipal lot in Newton Centre. I fed the meter one quarter ... no time registered. Then I dropped in another, figuring it might push the first one in to where it needs to go. Nope. I put in the third (and my last) quarter. Still nothing. The meter had about 9 minutes on it when I had pulled in to the spot. Luckily I have a pad of post-its in my car and a pen that works, so I wrote down the time and a note about the three quarters and unregistered time and stuck it to the meter.

An hour later, as I was heading back to my car, I saw two meter maids chatting. I stopped and told them that I had parked in a spot with an apparently broken meter. One of the women said, "You left the note, right? Not a problem, dear."

Not only did I not get a parking ticket (though I still would have had time on the meter had the money registered), but I left with a warm and fuzzy feeling from a friendly meter maid!

I’m considering drafting a petition to bring the Council on this matter. I believe the solution is a resolution from the Council suspending meter enforcement until such time as all these meters are replaced. Said moratorium would accomplish the following:

1) Expedite the replacement of the meters. If the town suddenly starts loosing money instead of stealing extra money, they might get off their “blessed assurance” and do something.

2) Said moratorium will provide for both restitution and punitive damages to innocent victims for 2 years of negligent larceny.

Finally, the salaries of all those responsible (starting from the very top) should be frozen until such time as any loss in revenue during the moratorium is paid for.

This has been going on for far too long to be tolerated and to be swept under the rug. Until there are consequences for negligence, disregard, and incompetence, our municipal government will continue to perpetuate it.