A few months ago, I was enjoying a much needed happy hour downtown. I parked in a meter and put all my change in. The meter ran until 6pm, but I only had enough change to park until 5:52pm. "OK, one drink" I told myself.
When I poured my second glass of wine, I knew I was gambling with the last 8 minutes on the meter. I was not surprised when I had the tell-tale slip under my windshield wiper when I returned to my car. $25! Not terrible, but that is one expensive glass of wine.
I didn't tell my husband about the ticket. I put it in a "special place" so I would remember to pay it. Of course I lost it. And forgot about it. And those metro police would never find me with my out of state plates! So, last week I received in the mail a bill from the metro police for $50. The original $25 plus a $25 penalty. And if I don't pay by the end of the day, I'll face a $5 default fee and possible court fees. I should probably just suck it up and pay it. But by now, morbid curiosity has me wondering how high it could get...
I'm going to vote that you don't sacrifice your monthly slush fund on court costs.
ReplyDeleteOr you could just never go to DC again?
What amazes me about this story is that you car-obsessed suburbanites don't drive around with rolls and rolls of quarters in your cars. Do you never, ever, have to pay for parking in your vast wastelands of concrete?
ReplyDeleteNo. That's why we moved out here. Plenty of glorious free parking. Also Costco.
ReplyDeleteAt least you can pay it today because the city police have an actual website that takes credit card payments. I enjoyed a 2-hour trip to the marriage bureau yesterday where I watched a friendly city worker type the hand-written information from a PDF I had to fill out that way because it wasn't an actual FORM. Then she printed out the typed up one and made me verify the information again. I then had to proceed to a different part of the courthouse to pay for this pleasure. This could all have been done in 5 minutes from my couch with an on-line form that accepts credit cards. Although it WAS fun to see the lesbian couples who were there for their civil ceremonies; overall I still love my city despite the lack of Costco.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the point of quarters, or cash in general. Why can't they just make parking meters that I can pay from my BlackBerry? Someone should invent that. We could make millions.
ReplyDeleteSomeone did. They do it in Europe.
ReplyDeleteI have a piece of plastic in my purse already that pays for things with out cash. It is called a credit card.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.slate.com/id/2288617/
Touche.
ReplyDeleteHOWEVER, magstripes are TERRIBLE technology. The information is easily stolen. The only thing that protects you on your credit card right now is that stupid 3-digit CVV on the back. Imagine if there's a magstripe reader on every parking meter in DC -- that's a stealing bonanza. Thus, maybe phones aren't the answer, though I'd posit they are (with some technical adjustments) since almost everyone has them -- just like credit cards. On a smartphone, you could have wireless, encrypted transmission of your credit card info.
And, of course, I wouldn't have to fiddle around in the rain, digging into my purse for my wallet and then for the card and then swipe it, and then swipe it again, and again, because the magstripe on my card is shot but my bank isn't sending me another card for three months. I could just sit in my car, press a button, and zap! it's paid.