Parking Voucher Machine Rant

Not very often that I need to park in Civic, but I did today in Turner. The parking meter stole $4 and only gave me about 20 minutes credit, not the 1 hour that I had paid for. I rang the 1800 number, explained the situation, and she told me that I would be provided 2 hours credit on their computer. I was provided a reference number in case I returned to find an envelope on the windscreen. All up, took about 1 minute. I was actually pretty impressed with the service and thought the system worked well. I’m not one for getting stressed out about paying for a mobile phone call that ‘should’ be free – really, who cares.

wildturkeycanoe said :

I found out Sunday night I had to work in Civic. Guess what? I had no money for the meter. How many shops are there that are open at 7am? My mate had to get change for me at 8:15 so I didn’t get stung, so I am in his debt. This is a situation I feel compelled to use as an excuse to say to the boss that I will not work in Civic, full stop. If you get directed there after say, 9 am, what are the chances of getting a spot even remotely close to the job site? .

Wow, just wow. You work on call, sometimes in Civic, and you need to use parking meters? And you don’t keep ten bucks in parking change lying around your car or at home? Whose fault is this again?

The answer is etoll, ping on the way in and out and your account is charged for the time parked.

No green button? WTF??? Did we lose a war or something?

You have to remember that the government is not in the business of being a competitive service provider.

I hate it when the machines are not producing tickets but still manage to eat your change and somehow that becomes your problem to fix (at your expense) even though you are the consumer.

But…as a mechanism to encourage biking and public transport I can say these parking machines have worked a treat with me. If it was too easy and a no-brainer it might encourage me back into the car!

Canberracanuck said :

Gee, why NOT make parking as painful and difficult as possible? Why should anyone be encouraged to bring their personal automobile into the city at all? Leave it at home and take the bus or active transport. Welcome to the 21st century.

Well, if the tradies who are refurbishing your office to keep up with 21st Century technology do not bring their vehicles to your building, guess what! Your office will be left in the 20th century.
I found out Sunday night I had to work in Civic. Guess what? I had no money for the meter. How many shops are there that are open at 7am? My mate had to get change for me at 8:15 so I didn’t get stung, so I am in his debt. This is a situation I feel compelled to use as an excuse to say to the boss that I will not work in Civic, full stop. If you get directed there after say, 9 am, what are the chances of getting a spot even remotely close to the job site? Nil. Then you may not know how long you are working there so you have to get the full daily allowance, so it isn’t very economical. Vans don’t fit in undercover parking either, so you see why tradesmen are always parked so badly. It is sometimes the only option, to get their daily wage.

Canberracanuck said :

Gee, why NOT make parking as painful and difficult as possible? Why should anyone be encouraged to bring their personal automobile into the city at all? Leave it at home and take the bus or active transport. Welcome to the 21st century.

Because some people are old, disabled, have to collect children and/or other dependents from inconvenient locations, might be car pooling doing volunteer community work that requires a vehicle, all while holding down full time jobs, or any of the other possible reasons that people might find not having personal vehicle a less easy option than you seem to think?

In this instance, the parking voucher machine is in the terribly overburdened parking locale of Tuggeranong.

magiccar9 said :

It could be based on the law similar to what the police use for people talking on their phones on the side of the road. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if your car is in gear ‘Park’ then you’re parked, if it isn’t then you’re stopped. I think I recall the police booking people who weren’t in ‘Park’ a while back.
Could be wrong though.

I don’t see why it would matter if you’re in ‘Park’ gear or not – my car doesn’t have a ‘Park’ gear and occasionally I’ve (accidentally) parked my wife’s car in ‘N’ (forgot to put it into ‘Park’) – I don’t think that would mean I’m not parked and therefore didn’t need to buy a parking voucher?!

As far as I know, to be talking legally on your handheld phone, you must be pulled over somewhere where it is legal for you to stop ie. not a nature strip, median strip or No Stopping zone, etc. I’d heard there were some police officers saying that if the engine was running, you were still in control of the vehicle but that would appear to contradict what the rules actually say about parking and stopping – you’re not parked if your’re within 3 (or is it 5?) metres of the car, yet if the engine is still running, Mr Plod says you’re still in control of the vehicle that you’re standing next to?! Anyway, that’s all getting a bit off topic…

magiccar9 said :

It could be based on the law similar to what the police use for people talking on their phones on the side of the road. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if your car is in gear ‘Park’ then you’re parked, if it isn’t then you’re stopped. I think I recall the police booking people who weren’t in ‘Park’ a while back.
Could be wrong though.

heheh
Catch 22:
If you’re on the phone in neutral or drive, you’re breaking the law.
If you’re in park, and haven’t paid for parking, you’re breaking the law.

Gee, why NOT make parking as painful and difficult as possible? Why should anyone be encouraged to bring their personal automobile into the city at all? Leave it at home and take the bus or active transport. Welcome to the 21st century.

ATypicalUsername said :

Parking inspectors giving tickets to people on the phone in their car…
I mean…
Who does that?
it resulted in an argument and I don’t know whether a ticket was issued in the end, but the fact that the inspector in question produced one boggles my mind.

It could be based on the law similar to what the police use for people talking on their phones on the side of the road. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if your car is in gear ‘Park’ then you’re parked, if it isn’t then you’re stopped. I think I recall the police booking people who weren’t in ‘Park’ a while back.
Could be wrong though.

$24 in sydney and I got 48 hours of fully secured parking. Here, you’d pay more than double and run the risk of billy bogan smashing your car windows to rummage through your car or just plain take it to smash into poor little hyundais.

pepmeup said :

Both parties promised to bring in Card payments at Public paid parking around Canberra at last years election. Have any car parks got this yet?

Relax, i’m sure they’re about to undertake a $2m feasibility study into new meters. The results should be out in December 2014. Then they’ll put out a tender for the new meters, which should be installed by about 2021…… Hahahaha!

Both parties promised to bring in Card payments at Public paid parking around Canberra at last years election. Have any car parks got this yet?

ATypicalUsername said :

Parking inspectors giving tickets to people on the phone in their car…
I mean…
Who does that?
it resulted in an argument and I don’t know whether a ticket was issued in the end, but the fact that the inspector in question produced one boggles my mind.

Technically, if you’re still in the car, or even within 3 (or is it 5) metres of it, you’re not parked (hence why there are different signs for ‘No Parking’ and ‘No Stopping’. I can’t imagine why you should get booked for parking when you’re not even parked?! I wouldn’t bother arguing it with the inspector on the street, but good luck arguing it with TAMS once you’ve got an infringement notice though!

ATypicalUsername said :

Lastly, I love the “In case of fault, FREECALL 1800…” then explain that charges to mobiles and public phones still apply (Because we all know how many people carry home phones with them when they go out of a morning)
I know that stands to reason, but what makes me chuckle is the very suggestion that it’s a free call, implying that somehow this is a favour provided for you.
Why WOULDN’T telling them that their machine is broken be free? Why would anyone charge you to help with their observation and maintenance? if it WASN’T a free call, it’d be disgusting.

LOL!

I’ve often wondered how people go with parking in Civic every day. When I have to go there for a meeting and feed a kg of all the coins I can muster into the machine just to park for a couple of hours (only to have the smaller ones spat back out at me, despite being legal tender), I think that all those people that park all day every week day must have to wear a a couple of belts and a pair of braces just to keep their gold-coin-filled pockets within arm’s reach.

Couldn’t they install machines that accept notes, cards or at least the MyWay cards?!

Maybe press the button marked Ticket instead…
Yes, a machine that accepts notes and credit cards would be useful.

i hate cash altogether….machines should all accept credit cards damn it.

so rant away…unfortunately the ACT govt doesn’t seem to listen/care and will likely bump up parking prices if they ever decide to enter the 1990s and beyond and accept more than coins for expensive parking

Some parking machines in canberra are an absolute joke…
I remember paying almost $50 for an 8 park somewhere around civic

The other thing that I’ve seen recently that pisses me off is the behaviour of some of those parking inspectors;
Let’s say a carpark is “Payed parking 9:30am-5:30pm” and after that it’s free. You arrive at 5:20. The machine is a $2 minimum, but you need about 15c of parking.
Most people will, admittedly, ignore this.
But recently three of my friends have been booked for exactly this scenario, seems the parking inspector in this park comes around somewhere between 5:20 and 5:30 and books everyone overdue.

OR.
Parking inspectors who see a car with around 5 minutes left, and just walk backwards and forwards within a metre or two of said car waiting until it expires to issue a ticket, my partner and I witnessed this just yesterday.

Or.
Parking inspectors giving tickets to people on the phone in their car…
I mean…
Who does that?
it resulted in an argument and I don’t know whether a ticket was issued in the end, but the fact that the inspector in question produced one boggles my mind.

Some people may say “They’re just doing their job” but nobody gets paid to be a dick.

Lastly, I love the “In case of fault, FREECALL 1800…” then explain that charges to mobiles and public phones still apply (Because we all know how many people carry home phones with them when they go out of a morning)
I know that stands to reason, but what makes me chuckle is the very suggestion that it’s a free call, implying that somehow this is a favour provided for you.
Why WOULDN’T telling them that their machine is broken be free? Why would anyone charge you to help with their observation and maintenance? if it WASN’T a free call, it’d be disgusting.