Lanzy
December 17, 2012, 3:02pm
21
Since there are penalties for not paying, its not much of an honor system.
Most street parking in the UK is like this. You won’t see a traffic warden, but odds are there’ll be one before you leave. If you’re there for a few minutes you might take a chance.
Obligatory Charlotte resident post.
What everyone else said, really.
md2000
December 17, 2012, 5:14pm
24
Clark_Cello:
The answers above basically answer the question, but I will add that, at least in Charlotte, where I live, most of these lots are in areas which are used by long-term parkers, rather than people going in and out of a store for 15 minutes. The vast majority of parkers in these lots are commuters who are working downtown. That being the case, you don’t really need someone checking every hour. If the attendant checks once or twice a day, he is going to see the majority of parkers.
In most areas, if you are going to be less than two hours, there are other parking options that are cheaper, either meters (difficult to get, but not as difficult as a place like NYC), or standard multi-level lots where you pay by the hour (this not being NYC, the first hour is generally around $2, rather than $10).
That was my reaction - parking for any time in Charlotte cost $5???
No wonder people go to Walmart in the suburbs.
PatriotGrrrl:
They have those at the Boston area commuter train stations. If you don’t pay, you will likely get a ticket, but it’s not a very expensive one, $20 I think. You just put it in the envelope they give you with the ticket and either put that in a drop box or mail it in. It’s a good thing its cheap, because putting the money in those things takes so long that if you’re late, you might just say screw it to avoid missing your train.
Huh - the one time I didn’t pay (didn’t have any singles on me) at a MBTA commuter lot, they just left an envelope on my car saying I had to pay a 50% penalty - taking my fee from $3 to a whopping $4.50. That was at least 15 years ago though, and it probably had some verbiage that if I didn’t mail in the $4.50 I’d get a $50 ticket or something.
