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As an actual driver, I'd say that parking tickets are typically fair, and easy to avoid. If somebody complains about parking ticket issues, it's a red flag that this person is either honestly incapable of understanding and following simple rules, or this person is just so entitled that they believe the rules should only apply to other people.

I do get a parking ticket now and then, but every one of them was because I ran into a scheduling issue and consciously decided to risk the ticket. And in every case, I could've paid more in advance to eliminate that risk.

I live in New York, and parking tickets make up right around 1% of our city's entire budget, which doesn't seem like a terribly burdensome stealth tax.

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This completely depends on where you are located. In NYC there are many, many areas with unclear signs or unclear rules that not everyone knows, and are ticketed because of this. In addition, some departments are simply corrupt.

For example: Seaside Heights, NJ.

A few years back my mom went to the shore and parked in a metered parking area. She put in 2 hours worth of time and went to the beach. She came back 1 1/2 hours later, and the meter was expired with a ticket waiting on her car. She fought the ticket and found out that the meters were broken and running too fast, and the parking officials knew about it.. but continued to write tickets. Their justification was that "All people have to do is dispute the ticket and we will drop the charges." but how many people simply pay tickets without fighting them because of a lack of time? Scumbags.

You have actual timers for each parking space?

I haven't seen any if those in ~30 years. All parking here in Sweden give you a paper reciept with the expiration time to place in your windshield.

Welcome to USA. Why would they replace them when they work just fine, from their perspective. And even when they don't work properly, it's you that pays the price not them.

It varies by jurisdiction. For example, downtown San Mateo has hose tickets you describe while Burlingsme has individual meters, and they are basically adjacent to each other.

Copenhagen is right now moving to a fully digital model: you enter your license plate in the machine or some online app. The people checking the parking have presumably some kind of license plate scanner.

The online app component seems to have been outsourced and thus has slightly different price structure; it also allows you to extend parking remotely.

In Abu Dhabi, UAE you have the option to use either. When you park, you just send an SMS with your license plate and the number of hours. That amount is deducted from your account, which should be created beforehand.

I love dumb-phone solutions to smart-phone apps.

Yeah, a simple solution to a simple problem, and guarantees maximum reach in the process.

Is this state-wide? How does the system know which lot you're parked in?

There are only two rates, so you include which type in the SMS. Location is not needed; the parking officers just check cars using a tablet to see if they have the right to park there.

It's implemented in Abu Dhabi city proper. I believe Dubai has the traditional ticket-based system only.

My city (Cincinnati, Ohio) is also moving an app-based street parking model. You pay via phone app and don't have to worry about carrying quarters. There's a petty credit card surcharge of like $0.25, but it's understandable given the low amount of the transaction.

The biggest downside to our system is paying via app doesn't reflect on the meter so you see "EXPIRED" making you feel a little uncomfortable about the whole thing. I wonder if they just don't have a way in the infrastructure to update meters over the web.

NYC has mostly moved to a digital system where you can pay with a credit/debit card and get a paper receipt to put on your windshield.

In many smaller cities, however, they still have old meters that take coins and have a timer. There is really no incentive for small towns to upgrade their infrastructure, as requiring coins probably means they will be able to write more tickets, as people increasingly carry less cash.

There are parking lots near me in Massachusetts where to pay for a day's parking you have to go up to a board, find the slot that corresponds to the parking space you have parked in, and you fold up a banknote and shove it in the slot.

Most U.S. cities still use individual timer meters, yes.

I disagree. I live near New York and have only gotten a parking ticket one time. There was construction scaffolding up on the street, covering signs, and new signs had been put on the scaffolding itself indicating it was ok to park there. I still got a ticket, and tried to appeal online, but my appeal was denied. I should have taken a picture with my phone, but I didn't. The fine was excessive (around $200).

NYC is constantly under construction. Signage is blocked by scaffolding, garbage, snow, you name it. I'm sure the residents on the street know exactly where you can and cannot park, but someone unfamiliar with the neighborhood is a target for excessive parking fines. This seems like a patently unfair system that is rigged against tourists and those from out of town.

Disclaimer: I live in CT.

I'm not convinced this is true in general, even if it is often true. Signage is unclear or absent. Certain departments are probably corrupt or inept.

There are also times when avoiding tickets is basically impossible. My local (and relatively large) community college brilliantly decided to do all three of these things at the same time:

1. Close down the third largest lot on campus. 2. Lease out half of the second largest lot on campus to local businesses. 3. Oversell permits for the remaining parking.

As a result, students began parking on the city streets. But the local residents didn't like that, so the city made those streets permit only (and only gave permits to local residents)* . The college's response was "get here early," which at best is not a solution and at worse, exacerbated the problem by making parking even less available in the early parts of the day. Later they added a meager shuttle solution which they didn't even keep for an entire semester (the parking situation lasted for YEARS rather than months because of theft, lawsuit, and resident concerns about the job site).

Frankly, I would be impressed with anyone who didn't get a ticket over that time period and still managed to make it to classes.

Looking further, the local downtown simply has inadequate parking. The downtowns of other nearby municipalities are the same. It certainly makes political sense to keep parking prices low and just ticket the hell out of violators rather than raising prices to keep demand in line with supply and making consumers and businesses unhappy. I'd be very surprised if these municipalities hadn't worked out the math and figured out which results in more money for them.

*Those roads are still (and probably permanently) permit only, so the only ones really suffering are going to be the short-sighted locals.

This sounds shockingly familiar. Closing lots, overselling permits, closing local neighborhood streets, implementing an inadequate shuttle after years of student complaints.... My experience is not with a community college, though, so I can be fairly certain we're thinking of at least two separate examples of pretty much exactly the same thing going on in different college/university towns.

What's the name of that community college, so others in your area reading this can know to avoid it? :)

Why would the locals be suffering if those roads stay permit only? Resident-only parking permits is a very common system and seems to work well (living in Cambridge, MA that has such a system).

Because once the school fixes their parking situation the problem is gone but the "solution" still needs to be renewed every year and is a headache whenever residents have visitors.

There is no purpose to parking on these roads except to visit the local residences. The college is the closest non-residence to these neighborhoods and even that is a hike; students only parked there out of desperation and then walked a long way.

There wasn't even a parking crisis for local residents. The homes there have multicar garages and driveways. They simply didn't like people parking on "their" street. The streets are wide and the parking space is ample.

They've effectively banned visitor parking in the entire neighborhood. And for families with teenagers and multiple cars, they've got to shuffle cars or keep permits updated for no benefit of any kind.

The problem with parking tickets as a tax is it isn't at all fair. If you mega corp CEO or even well paid startup techy, getting a parking ticket of a few hundred dollars isn't that big a deal. To someone on minimum wage it would be a significant part of their income.

Do it like Finland - http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/finland-...

Oh how I wish it was like that here! Unfortunately, those with the most money write the laws here.

That's for speeding though. Parking is flat rate in Finland as well.

And that's economically efficient. Parking tickets are just a more expensive form of parking to people with enough money.

Except that if you actually want that then it's more efficient to just charge $40 for parking than issuing $200 tickets to a random 20% of cars.

Exactly. Parking spots should be auctioned off.

I agree, for the most part, but as others have said, parking "legally" can be quite impossible for many. I can understand private parking and stuff, but there is really no excuse for having non-digital parking systems in the 21st century. I hardly ever carry cash, much less coins, so I have zero tolerance and respect for systems that literally nickel-and-dime me. I gladly take my credit card out and pay for parking in the downtown area of my city, because I know I'm not "entitled" to park there. However, a customer willing and technically able to give money (i.e., a person who has the money, but not the form of currency that the parking meter takes) should not be ticketed simple because they do not carry cash.

I have qualms with even digital systems too. The one in my downtown area is digital, but you still have to pre-pay for parking. Sometimes I don't know how long I'm going to be at a place, and it's ridiculous to expect people to come down from the top floor of a 6 story building just to "add more" money to a digital parking meter. Why not sign in once when you park, and sign out once when you leave, and just pay for the time you are there?

Anyway, that's my rant.

I really loved when my city started to use Park by SMS. Since then I almost never get a ticket. Maybe once a year when an run and forget to send SMS.

Philadelphia began implementing this but typically screwed it up by charging you (and not telling you) a renewal multiplier of cost*n where n is the number of renewal.

Want to pay once and subsequently "feed the meter" twice? Gonna cost 6n vs 3n if you walk back to the meter and pay in person. Want to renew again? Total cost is 10n instead of 4n.

Pretty much everything the PPA does here is direct proof they're not interested in making parking a legal matter so much as a money-extraction matter.

50% of the parking tickets I've been issue have been done so incorrectly.

I've had two parking tickets in my life, in London. Once, only a few months after I got my licence, I parked for 10 mins in a bay where stopping was allowed, but not at that particular time. Fair cop. I hadn't bothered to read the sign.

The second time, I stopped in a 'loading' zone, where loading is permitted for a certain amount of time. I don't recall the amount of time, but I was within that amount of time. When I challenged the person who had written the ticket, he told me that loading was only allowed for commercial vehicles (which is untrue). I challenged the ticket by post, outlining what had happened, and including the parking attendant's inaccurate understanding of what loading bays are for. My challenge was rejected, and it didn't seem worth my time to continue the process.

50% of 2...?

London, UK. 1 GBP charge to park in a motorcycle bay. Only possible way of doing it is via a mobile phone, online or by calling. No meter on the street. Drove to work, parked the motorcycle. No signal. Went to work, paid for it when I got back as the signal was back up. 120GBP fine.

Is it unreasonable? Well, I didn't follow the instructions. But I would argue that it's unreasonable to fail to account for the fact that people can't just drop everything and run around for half an hour trying to get in contact with a parking line. I wanted to just glue a pound coin to the seat, to be honest.

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