Read Online Meter Maids Eat Their Young by E. J. Knapp - Free Book Online

not on those grounds. The defense team knew that it was basically charging a rental fee for space that belonged to the public. They also knew they would never get away with that defense. Instead, they argued that the revenue from the parking meters, and the inevitable tickets, was to pay for parking enforcement.”
    I thought that one over a moment. It was very twisted logic.
    â€œAnd they won with that argument?”
    â€œIndeed.”
    â€œWait, let me get this straight. We feed the meter—”
    â€œA device none of us asked for,” Philo said. “Nor were we consulted over their placement.”
    â€œRight. We feed the meter to pay someone to patrol the meter we didn’t ask for and give us a ticket if we park beside it for too long. That doesn’t make any sense.”
    â€œNo. It doesn’t. But that’s how parking meters overcame their first legal challenge and we’ve been tossing nickels, dimes and quarters into their gaping maw ever since. That little tidbit is lost to history. And now that the legality is essentially out of the way, city councils all across the country have a number of ersatz reasons for sticking a meter alongside any spot big enough to park a car.”
    â€œSuch as?”
    â€œTurnover. Force people to move their cars so others can park. Of course, that’s only valid in shopping areas so it doesn’t explain the prevalence of meters in every part of town.”
    He picked up his tea, sipped it and set the cup back down.
    â€œForcing people onto public transportation is another dubious reason given for the parking meter’s existence, though that, too, is ludicrous. In most metropolitan areas, public transportation either doesn’t exist in any meaningful way or, where it does, is wholly inadequate for the needs of the communities it serves. This inadequacy leads to frustration, which leads to more people driving, which leads to less revenue, which leads to further deterioration of service … and on and on in a downward spiral.
    â€œThe problem, of course, is that if people drive, they must park. For them to park, there must be parking places. On average, a person works eight hours a day. You don’t find many eight-hour parking meters: Thirty minutes, sixty, two hours tops. It doesn’t compute and this is where the whole theory of metered parking falls apart.”
    â€œFall apart? “ I said. “I’m not sure I understand that.”
    â€œIt’s simple, really. As with anything, there is an obvious cost and a hidden cost. With metered parking, the hidden cost is quite high. Now, the obvious cost is the meter itself; its installation and maintenance and, of course, all the people necessary to run a department of parking enforcement, including those who check the meters and write the tickets. This cost is borne by the revenue produced by the meters and the tickets, roughly twenty percent of gross.”
    â€œAnd the hidden cost?”
    â€œBusinesses carry the brunt of that,” he said. “And then there is the issue of lost space.”
    â€œLost space?”
    â€œYes. You see, the state mandates the size of a metered parking space, pretty much to accommodate the largest vehicle that might park there, plus several feet fore and aft. But not everyone has large cars, especially in this day of escalating fuel prices. What this means is, a Volkswagen is allotted as much room as a Cadillac. On a city block with ten meters, only ten cars can park. Without those meters, you could likely squeeze in thirteen, maybe fourteen cars. Because the block is metered, nearly twenty-five percent of that block is lost to parking space.”
    â€œOkay. What about the loss to business?”
    â€œEasy. Two-hour parking meter. Eight-hour day. Anyone parked at a meter will have to run out to their car three, possibly four times a day. More if they get a meter with less time. Figure ten to twenty minutes each