# Putting money in the parking meter of a stranger's car... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 27, 2004, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761 "2004-12-27T09:23:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761/41 "2013-05-16T03:12:16Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > The situation in San Jose might be different, but people tend to vastly overestimate the importance of ticket revenue to large cities. I think where it looks bad is how much of that are they expending on enforcement. I bet the budget for enforcement is less than 1 mil making it a nice profit generator. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761/42 "2013-05-16T03:26:43Z")
Perhaps. But if one were to compare the financial incentives of small town mayors/managers/officials and big city mayors/managers/officials, the small town ones are more likely to view ticket revenues as an incentive instead of something they pay some mid-level manager to worry about. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761/43 "2013-05-16T03:32:45Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Do parking meters still exist? Our town removed _all_ of them 20 years ago when the businesses complained that they were driving customers out of town. And they were. Parking meters are obsolete unless you are trying to discourage shoppers. I see them in the suburbs of Chicago, but in Chicago proper, they’ve pretty much all been replaced by a single ticket dispenser located mid-block that prints a receipt that you put inside your windshield, curbside. (Or what **JBDivmstr** described.) Rates are from $2/hr to $6.50/hr in the city. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761/44 "2013-05-16T03:43:34Z")
Just thought I’d also mention - the cynic typically sees parking prices as set to maximize revenue, but San Francisco recently has started experimenting with removing human control over the parking rate-setting with automated sensors and an algorithm that attempts to influence occupancy rate as an important variable. Despite the inevitable cynic’s prediction that it was just cover for increasing parking rates, parking rates have also gone down in many areas. > **[A Meter So Expensive, It Creates Parking Spots (Published 2012)](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/us/program-aims-to-make-the-streets-of-san-francisco-easier-to-park-on.html?_r=0)** > > A program using new technology and flexible pricing based on supply and demand appears to have made finding a parking space easier in parts of San Francisco. > **[Freakonomics](https://www.freakonomics.com/)** > > The hidden side of everything The experiment’s not over, but we should probably wait for the results before agreeing with the cynic about the motives behind the program. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761/45 "2013-05-16T03:49:23Z")
[This episode of “Dharma and Gregg”](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0559082/) explains all the ramifications of putting money into other people’s meters . . . especially if you have any notion of fighting City Hall. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761/46 "2013-05-16T09:20:30Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Do parking meters still exist? Our town removed _all_ of them 20 years ago when the businesses complained that they were driving customers out of town. And they were. Parking meters are obsolete unless you are trying to discourage shoppers. The city of Paso Robles, CA, had meters in the downtown area once upon a time. They got rid of them about 20 years ago too. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761/47 "2013-05-16T12:43:41Z")
It’s a complicated problem, because you’re trying to manage a scarce resource. In my town (where I wasn’t living when I first commented) parking is hard to find during certain times. On a Thurs, Fri, Sat evening, you’ll spend 15 minutes searching for a spot, then park 4 blocks away from your destination. This is not horrible if you’re going out to dinner or going to a bar, but it sucks ass if you’re picking up dry cleaning or takeout. There are plenty of businesses in my downtown that I actively avoid because parking is too hard to find. So, it would make sense to encourage long stayers like workers and diners to park in the garages and lots, and leave the street parking to folks wanting to get in and out. But you need to build garages, and pay people to enforce the street parking rules. That costs money, and my town’s parking department is not even breaking even. If you have a town with ample parking, you don’t need to manage it. If parking is scarce, you have to manage it, otherwise all the good spots will be taken up by long term parkers and people who want to go there to do business will stay away. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761/48 "2013-05-16T12:53:30Z")
It appears (according to Wikipedia, anyway) that flashing your headlights to warn other drivers of speed traps [is legal in numerous states](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlight_flashing), thankfully including my own. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761/49 "2013-05-16T14:35:36Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > San Francisco makes a lot more money off the parking tax, which taxes rentable non-residential parking spaces, for $76.6 million or about 2.4% of revenues. > > The situation in San Jose might be different, but people tend to vastly overestimate the importance of ticket revenue to large cities. My understanding (someone correct me if I’m wrong) is that traffic and parking fines often supplement the police budget, of which they’re often a large percentage. Cops have quotas and are encouraged in various ways to maximize the amount of fines they issue. I don’t think it’s a big portion of city revenue, but it’s a big portion of the police budget. And that distorts the incentives police have to enforce the law equally across the board. They’d much rather issue easy and lucrative tickets than to work hard catching burglars and rapists for little return. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761/50 "2013-05-16T14:50:19Z")
Yes, of course the only reason to enforce parking laws is to enhance the police budget. It wouldn’t be because if people are allowed to park without any time limit no places would ever open up for the occasional visitor or customer. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761/51 "2013-05-16T14:55:55Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Yes, of course the only reason to enforce parking laws is to enhance the police budget. It wouldn’t be because if people are allowed to park without any time limit no places would ever open up for the occasional visitor or customer. I didn’t say that. I said it creates the wrong incentives. I’d suggest keeping the speeding and parking laws as they are, but making sure officer evaluations and the police force budget are completely unrelated to the amount of fines collected. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761/52 "2013-05-16T15:05:44Z")
In larger cities, the regular police don’t enforce parking, meters, etc. Instead there is often (again, in larger cities) a separate parking enforcement staff. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761/53 "2013-05-16T16:31:36Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > In larger cities, the regular police don’t enforce parking, meters, etc. Instead there is often (again, in larger cities) a separate parking enforcement staff. That is the case in San Francisco. Parking is enforced by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency rather than the San Francisco Police Department. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761/54 "2013-05-16T16:40:47Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I carry nickles, and feed the meters whenever i know a meter maid is coming. Good Karma. Not for the store owner who doesn’t get customers who can’t find parking because someone like you thinks that misusing a parking space instead of going to a parking lot is a “good thing”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-money-in-the-parking-meter-of-a-strangers-car/281761.md?page=2)