So in the summer here in my tiny little tourism-dependent town, parking downtown in the summer during tourist season is terrible because every single tourist wants to park near the theaters, cute restaurants, and kitschy overpriced shops. As you might imagine, this puts quite a dent in my beer-swilling activities, because the bars I like are right downtown, and it can be difficult to find a parking space within four blocks of downtown. However, there are lots of banks in the area, all of which have significant parking lots with big “FOR CUSTOMERS ONLY” signs in front of each space. Some banks even have signs threatening to tow the cars of non-customers. I do respect these signs during business hours, but when banks are certainly closed (i.e. after six o’clock or on Sundays) I freely ignore these signs and park at the banks. I reason that since the banks are not open at this time, I’m not preventing any customers from reaching the banks and therefore not costing them any business. I suppose that I am contributing to wear-and-tear on the parking lot, but that’s so small as to be difficult to measure. Am I in the wrong here?
More generally, I suppose, is it wrong to park in “FOR CUSTOMERS ONLY” spaces if you are not a customer but the business in question is closed? I’m not talking about employee parking spaces, which might be needed by employees even when the business is closed, but only customer parking. Is this wrong?
If they’re closed, I don’t see a problem with it. I’ve parked in a specific bank’s drive-thru lane in a busy area of town a few times. It was after hours, of course, and several other people did the same. There’s just not enough parking nearby.
Just don’t block the ATM. I saw someone do that once. :rolleyes:
Morally? The bank pays to maintain that parking lot. No matter how slim your impact of parking their may be you are still using their property and thus increasing their maintenance costs without their consent. So if you believe yourself to be the up most of citizens and have respect for private property you shouldn’t be parking there.
That said I wouldn’t hold it against you. If you think you can park there without consequence I’d say go for it.
The legal problem however is it is their parking lot. If they haven’t given you permission to be there(like they do for bank customers) they can have your car towed. It doesn’t matter if they are open or not. Some businesses care others don’t, you willing to take your chances?
I agree with the opinions of the previous two posters. However, if you are parking in a lot after hours and the lot is signed that non-customers will be towed at owner’s expense or something similar, you do risk returning later and finding your vehicle towed away. After all, while the bank may be closed and the lot available, you really are not a customer of the bank and they are well within their rights to have your vehicle towed. It is their lot 24/7/365.
Also, if they’ve contracted with a towing company to tow unauthorized parkers, the towing company makes money on each car, so they have an incentive to tow at all hours (in fact, it’s probably easier after hours because they can be sure the cars there don’t belong to customers).
My bank sits adjacent to the local movie theater and shopping area, very near the valet parking section. On busy weekend nights the lot is always filled with cars. In such a busy area, it would be silly to leave that many spaces unused in the evenings. But no one except bank customers and employees use it during business hours. As long as people park in spaces and don’t block the ATM, I don’t think the bank cares.
Anyways, if you really want to clear your mind, go in during business and ask the bank manager. You might find out they contract out the towing and they really have no say in it. But more then likely they have to call in individual cars and the sign is there more to give them the ability to get rid of abandoned cars, so as long as you’re only there for a few hours it shouldn’t be a problem.
Yes in Chicago many lots are covered by towing companies, probably all of them if you find yourself in an area where restaurant- and theater-goers eat up the parking on Saturday night. And once you’re towed there’s no talking your way out of the fee, the towing companies don’t care who you are and what you think of their business, if they legally towed you they’re getting your money. It’s a lesson a lot of people learn exactly once.
And don’t block the night drop. That has to be available 24/7 for businesses and customers to drop their deposits during off hours. When I worked for a bank, people would park in the drive through lanes during off hours, and we were okay with that. But if you parked in the ATM lane or night drop lane, and an employee of the bank happened past, we would happily call the towing company and have you towed.
I do it all the time. I don’t see an issue with it, though there’s one downtown bank that posts a sign threatening to tow non-customers who park there.
Our downtown banks are totally okay with it and have been since LONG before I ever started going downtown. They’d bar entrance to the parking lot if they weren’t.
On a related note, although I’ve never had an issue with a bank, I’ve been threatened with towing by the neighbors of closed businesses in strip malls for using their ‘for customers only’ parking after-hours. Specifically, the UPS Store next to a Chinese joint. I tried to tell the restaurant manager that the UPS Store closed at five so it shouldn’t matter, but he didn’t care. I pulled out, parked across the street, and went to the Mexican restaurant two doors down from the Chinese Joint. Shooting daggers with my eyes in the general direction of the restaurant manager the whole time.
Some such businesses take exception. Personally, I would support municipal ordinances that required businesses to open their private surface parking lots to public use (without liability to the business, of course) when the business is closed (say, from one hour after closing to one hour before next opening). Surface parking lots larger than a handful of spaces are a blight, and such a policy would be a token way for the businesses to repay the community for their infliction.
On the other hand, if I had designed your town, I’d be expecting you to be willing to walk more than four blocks to downtown destinations. (I’d give you nice sidewalks to do it.)
And when the business has to raise their prices because they have to repave their lot to the tune of $20,000+ every 8 years instead of every 15, you’d support that as well?
Damn right. I’d charge them higher property taxes on the land covered by the lot, too. A surface parking lot is a terribly inefficient and antisocial use of prime downtown land, symptomatic of countless planning and design failures, and such uses should be discouraged.
Conversely, I’d abolish many of the current zoning requirements to have parking on private commercial land at all, and I’d vastly improve non-automobile transport options and decentralized public parking, so businesses in my town could avoid spending any money on parking at all if they so chose.
I think a parking lot is considered semi-public space unless it’s fenced off and gated, just like a store or a restaurant is considered a semi-public space.
And I think that it’s illegal in most places for a business to have a car towed unless they have signs up expressly stating NO PARKING VIOLATORS WILL BE TOWED BY KOW TOWING.
Sounds like an awesome way to chase business out of the downtown areas and back into the suburbs.
I can’t speak for other areas but that’s not the case where I work. All we have to do is put a note on the car telling them they have to remove their car within 24 hours. After 24 hours we call the police and have them come and ticket the car as abandoned. After there is a ticket on the windshield we call a towing company and they’ll come pick up the car. Perhaps having the sign up eliminates some of those steps, but (where I work) it’s not a necessary part of the process.
