I agree. I'd love to know how much they collect in a year. That's a lousy way to collect revenue.

I don't see what the problem is. If you $1 worth of quarters into a meter, you can't get it back. Why is a credit card different?

because its easy to return the change on a credit card to its rightful owner, but impossible to be sure your returning the cash change to its. maybe have the meters charge the money after it finds out how long you've been there?

If you use a card to put more than a dollar on your meter, ...maybe you plan to be gone most
of the day,.....then find that your meeting was cancelled, you have just put a couple of dollars on your card. Why should you lose it? It's one thing to lose a quarter but a couple of dollars adds up.

the most you can put on your credit card before 5pm is $3.00 - the same maximum amount of change that can be put into the machine.

i am thinking more on the meters resetting after the car leaves - i would think there would be a lot of commentary about that.

pedro - what do you think about the meters resetting?

I'm ambivalent about the meters resetting. If you really want to generate revenue from meters, this is the way to do it. It will also prevent people from rounding the block looking for times on meters (I admit, I do this if I have a short trip), so that will help traffic.

But as Wizwaz says- it is a little frustrating to pay $1 for 40 minutes, but only use 10 or 15. I'm definitely going to carry more quarters around in my car now, since I can't rely on a few minutes of available meter time to make a stop.

Since the meters can detect coming and going- maybe there could be a 10 minute grace period of free time on meters. Nothing long enough that someone is going to "spot hop for free time" but enough time to allow for changes of plans etc.

I just liked that comment in my mind... free first 10 minutes would be a great marketing campaign...

Pedro and Doug: I believe using Credit Cards to park in New Haven is NOT convenient.

It's not convenient because it infringes on our civil liberties, which, in my insane mind, includes the right to not have a record of where your car is parked within the city at all times.

Therefore, if we choose to use our cards at the meter (knowing full well that Jim Travers, The NHPD, or Lombard Motors may be monitoring) I believe it is only fair that the meters have a "return" mechanism in place, for those of us who have successfully parked for 36 minutes without being hassled in some way.

Our footprint has already been made, therefore there is no harm in making another footprint to get our money back.

I realize this is not the kind of thinking that the young money makers think about, but it is worth considering for Joe New Haven.

has anyone thought of disputing the charge with your credit card company?

nice idea, Odis.

I would like to apologize for the tone of my last comment.

It is a little discouraging to see New Haven's brightest and best (youngest) potential leaders
get dollar signs in their eyes when talking about 30 or 40 cents being squeezed out of a working class family, day after day.

There is a real issue here. Well, two as Doug pointed out:
1) Is it ETHICAL to confiscate the remaining money on a meter when someone pays with a card and
2) Is it ETHICAL for that money to get "erased" (again, confiscated) once a car has pulled away.

I suppose the third issue here is

3) Has there been too much of a groundswell of support among the new generation of leaders here (Like Travers, Hausladen, Streever, Soto etc) of the notion that parking is "commercial" and is a "privilege", that it has been forgotten that working poor drivers could really use the Two or Three dollars per week that is being confiscated by the city with these "modern" parking meters.

Flax -

Thank you for the re-post and tone change.

I'd like to restate your first question, please let me know if this is correct: Is it ETHICAL to force a $1.00 minimum credit card charge (and therefore 40 minute minimum use) when the parker opts in to using their credit card instead of using change?

The others I'll respond to - I don't have an answer for #2 and am debating it for myself and have been talking with a lot of people about it. I cannot find a parallel or corollary in government to justify the resetting of meters. I never advocated for this resetting of the meter upon leaving, though I did advocate for an upgrade to parking meters which have made this possible (in all honesty).

#3 I feel is an attack, which is not fun to receive when I wake up in the morning. I believe on-street parking to be a "Common Good" of fixed amount (limited) and the city needs to allocate parking fairly while getting the uses out of these spaces that are desired. There are 1000 parking spaces downtown. If they were free, you'd have 1000 employees in the downtown rushing to them and sitting in them all day. You would then find no businesses able to conduct business. If they are $10/hour, then you find no businesses getting customers because they do not want to pay $10/hour parking and our transit system is not good enough (yet) for a truly car-free city. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_good_%28economics%29

My best suggestion to anyone worried about credit cards tracking them or the meter resetting would be the same that it has been since parking meters were installed: don't forget your change. All meters still take US currency in the form of coins. The credit card option is supposed to be an option and not the only way to pay.

I did not know Mr. Hausladen advocated for modern meters. Question 3 was not an attack
on him personally, but perhaps on the culture that has overtaken the town regarding car drivers/parkers.

"Is it ETHICAL to force a $1.00 minimum credit card charge (and therefore 40 minute minimum use) when the parker opts in to using their credit card instead of using change?" NO.
It's not ethical! Not everyone has a card. and if they do, every cent counts.
I like your idea to remember to bring change... good point.

Might I also bring up the "Meter Maids"? Is there any documentation about how much we spend on their salaries verses how much they "bring in" from tickets?

I believe the entire culture of the Department of Transportation and Parking (and the abundance of related entities) is corrupt and sick.

The recent headlines about "pulling away" and "mandatory minimum for Credit card" prove it. In plain sight, robbery and corruption.

I am very disappointed in the city. Perhaps we should just build a new city without cars, instead of squeezing cars out like this.

I'm outraged that the City will be recapturing remainders on meters. Ignoring the credit card issue and the privacy issue, for the moment, I simply cannot understand the ethics behind this. Play a game with me: Read these three silly stories and tell me what I'm missing.

1. Joe signs a 6 month lease on an apartment and pays all 6 months' rents in advance as he intends to use them all, no more or less. 4 months into the lease, Joe goes on a two month trip around the world. Can Joe's landlord rerent his apartment for months five and six based on the nature of his usage?

2. Mary buys the last Prius at B-2 Toyota. There will be no more Priii this year. The following week, Jane goes into B-2 Toyota to buy a Prius only the discover that they are very rare and are currently sold out.. Can the dealership resell Mary's car to Jane based on demand?

3. Brucie is trying to impress a friend with a nice dinner in NHV. Drat! The fancy wine he planned to buy is only sold by the bottle. Big Shot orders the bottle. Both diners drink one glass and no more. In recent CT history, he would have to have abandoned the remainder, bought and paid for, on the table, Was the state wrong to change the rules protect Brucie's vino (read rights to property)?

So perhaps opening another issue regarding only the most obvious criminal collection practices by the Dept. of TT&P is in order. Perhaps by someone who can write... someone like Bruce!

Another thing about the downtown meters...besides confiscating the "unused" time on a meter, which is basically an unfriendly act by the city, the new meters do NOT accept the New Haven Card (the old meters did), which was a really nice, business-friendly way of supporting the city and getting a tiny discount on parking! This administration is strangely mean to businesses! And really, in return for a lot of confusion, anger and frustration, how much will the city make in additional revenue by confiscating the quarter left on the meter? Did anyone in City Hall stop to figure out whether this anti-business, anti-visitor, small-minded gesture, is worth the amount of ill-will it is producing?

Driver1

i once heard a rumor that gas stations could not enforce a $5 minimum on purchases... does anyone know if this is true? if so, the city of new haven cannot enforce a $1 minimum, no? i remember something about how a business cannot dictate the manor in which you spend your money (obviously extremely hazy on this whole law if it even is one).

My problem is with the actual ticketing of cars. A 72 year old woman was being left off on Chapel St. by her husband. He helped carry in a few things to the shop where she works. The car door was OPEN as he was running back and fourth. The shop is located 14 feet from their car. The owner clearly wasn't gone and this NASTY meter man ticketed them. This is horrible for business. The tall meterman is known as toothpick because of his affinity for often having one in his mouth.
The same meterman ticketed a woman that had paid for a 1/2 hour afer twelve minutes. The time on the ticket was timestamped before the actual time. Pre-crime? This could actually be a defect in the new meters with sensors experiment. Her car was very small and was too short to reach the sensor. Did the meter close out her time thinking that the car had left? It deserves some review.

How to organize and focus our vote of incompetence on the Dept. Of Transportation, Traffic and Parking? Should we just go down there en masse to express our disapproval?

I think it will be difficult at the least to organize enough people to appear en masse. Perhaps
a telephone blitz to Traffic & Parking ?