Parking Meters of Berkeley
Friends, let my experience with the Berkeley parking meters today be a warning to you all! The parking meters in Berkeley are terrible. I drove into work for the first time today because I had dinner plans in Berkeley this evening and I didn't want to have to worry about BART and the bus late at night - very inconvenient. Unfortunately, I don't have a UC parking pass, so I had to park on the street. It wasn't a big deal - classes aren't in session so there was parking to be found. Unfortunately, the parking meters in Berkeley are less than ideal. I pulled up to a meter, dropped in a quarter and got my 20 minutes. Glad that my meter was working, I popped in two more quarters, and noticed that I still had 20 minutes. The two quarters didn't work! Bizarre, I thought, so I pulled my car back into the spot directly behind my original, and popped a quarter into the meter. Nothing... it just sat there blinking "-0:00" at me. Thinking maybe the quarter got stuck or something, I gave the meter a gentle thump on the side. Well, that made SOMETHING happen, but not the something I wanted. The meter started to blink "FAIL" at me. Great, another broken meter.
In Berkeley, if your meter is blinking "FAIL" you are allowed to park there for free up to the length of time permitted by the meter. In this case, it was 2 hours. I was kind of happy about this because it meant my first two hours would cost me only $1 (the 75 cents from meter one, plus the quarter I lost in meter 2). I went about my merry way, and then decided to go out and move my car a few minutes early. I got to my car at 10:26 a.m. and what should I discover but a parking ticket! I looked at the meter, and it was no longer blinking "FAIL;" rather, it was blinking "-0:00." This was not acceptable. I dropped some quarters into the meter (it worked this time) and then set about contesting the parking ticket. I wrote up a letter about why the citation was invalid and then walked it the two blocks to the City of Berkeley Transportation Finance Office. I dropped off my request for an Administrative Review and was told that I might hear from them by June 15.
At least, I figured, I was now parked at a working meter. Boy was I fooling myself! The meter worked fine for a few hours, but come about 2:30 I went to feed the meter and.... nothing. It wouldn't add any more time, it just ate my money. What a rip off! Not wanting to get another ticket I elected to move my car. I moved it around to a third meter just around the corner, fed the meter and.... it worked! Yes, a good meter, I thought. All was well with this third meter for the first 90 minutes or so. After 90 minutes, though, when I went to feed the meter again... it ate my first two coins, then accepted the third, and then on the fourth coin the meter broke and started blinking "FAIL." I decided it wasn't worth my effort to move the car to another meter, but it also wasn't worth the risk of getting another ticket to let the car sit, so I decided to drive about three-quarters of a mile away to some free parking where I left my car for the rest of the afternoon.
Apparently parking meters are causing serious trouble in Berkeley. Many of them are broken or have been vandalized. Some people have even gone so far as to create official looking "Out of Order" signs to hang on meters in order to get free parking! It's pretty ridiculous. It is estimated that 99% of meters in the city of San Francisco work properly. In Berkeley? About 30% work correctly.
Comments
This is too funny! I think it's a sign that you should sell your car....well maybe not, but it is a good story
In the end though I hope you don't have to pay for that parking ticket. Plus I think they should reimburse you for the money that they ate. Stupid meters.
Posted by: Amber | May 12, 2006 2:17 PM