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Is the New Parking Meter Policy Fraud?
Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist
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Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist
The news of L.A.'s recent parking policy at new coin and card meters had a lot of people talking last week. Via LA Observed, we find Jonathan Dobrer at the Daily News' opinion blog sound off on the issue.
"Our unfair [the] city is now demanding that even if we have lost money in a parking meter, we have to move and try another one, or get a ticket. This shows us all that our government is not here to serve the public but to service us--and not in a good way," he said. "When the city offers something (a parking place), takes our money and then doesn't provide what we paid for and then wants to fine us, this is fraud squared."
The meters, in theory, rarely break and if they do, wirelessly contact headquarters to send out a repair person. One of the policy's goals is to deter people from purposefully jamming them so they can park for free.
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The policy has been in place for less than a month so it's too early to really tell how effective or defective this system works. That said, scoring a parking spot and getting out to find a broken meter, only to have to move it again, is quite an exasperation, especially if you lose your last few coins.
It should also be noted that the card and coin meters are not necessarily the end of the line as the city is still trying out different meter configurations and locations, according to a department spokesperson.
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