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L.A. Was Slow to the Parking Meter Game
Photo by jek in the box/LAist Featured Photos
Los Angeles may have 40,000 parking meters today--an estimated 10 to 12% are broken--but the city was slow to adopt the revenue generating, ticket inducing technology, finds columnist Steve Harvey. The first meters were installed in 1949 during a pilot project where the NoHo Arts District sits today. That's 14 years after the first ones appeared Oklahoma City (Even today, L.A. is slow to start up pilot projects). As the meters were debated by City Councilmembers, an LA Times columnist in 1940 asked "Can a stranger, or even a forgetful homebody, be mulcted for a fine if he doesn't know how to work the contraption? Even the mechanics of dropping a nickel in a slot is a major problem for some."
The same could be said for some upon first experiencing the new pay stations that are replacing meters in parts of the city.
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