Written by Dusty Collins
Tuesday, 23 June 2009 19:54
Parking Tickets, Parking Tickets. I hate them! Not because they cause any damage or hurt me in any way. The fact that I'll have to take time out of my day to either go to City Hall or write a check doesn't even bother me. The money, that's not my issue with parking tickets either.
The sole reason that I dislike parking tickets is because they ruin my day. No matter the time or weather or even my spirits, the moment I approach my vehicle and see that long, narrow slip of paper with a red stripe on both ends, so gingerly placed beneath the wiper, my day is ruined!
Let me tell you about my experiences with meter parking lately. The other day, my truck wouldn't start. It was the starter, I knew it was time. "No biggie.", I thought. So I fed the meter and hitched a ride to work with the boss man. After a long day driving back and forth to a small town past Oneonta, I couldn't wait to get home. The kind man my boss is, he dropped me off. So down the sidewalk I go. The entrance to my apartment was coming up sooner than my truck, since I was left on the other end of the street. I'm not really sure why or for what reason, I decided to look down the street where my truck was parked. From afar I noticed paper on my windshield. Sure thing. A parking ticket. My day was ruined! It was my first parking ticket so I was excited to see the deal. I was curious how long you had to pay and how much the fine was. The first thing I thought to do was to feed the meter. I dug deep in my pocket to find some change. Just as I thought there were none, I found a dime and a nickel. That was enough money to take the meter within thirty minutes or so of the time in which meter parking concludes on my street. I figured that would be close enough, since I already received a ticket on that day. Not the case. I had to get something from my vehicle later on in the night and guess what I found. That long, narrow slip of paper with a red stripe on both ends, so gingerly placed beneath the wiper. My day couldn't get much worse.
After reviewing the two parking tickets, I found something that interested me. The meters are numbered. Now this makes perfect sense to me, seeing at times certain meters need special attention, one may need to differentiate. However, my brain began to wander, as it usually does. I wondered if there is someone, in an office somewhere, or even a computer program, that logs all of the data from parking tickets. This information could be very useful to the parking police. They could then determine which street has the most violations, or what time most tickets are written. Maybe which side of the street, or even on which day has the most citations. I'm willing to bet someone or something out there, can narrow the parking meters down to the most profitable one. This strategy would increase revenues for the city and the process put into use would pay for itself in no time. Here I am, helping write parking tickets. On a more serious note, if I had that information, you can bet your life that there would be a sign revealing that, "This parking spot receives the most parking tickets in the City of Binghamton."
