Sound Off: Parking ticket / LJWorld.com

Sound Off

I was downtown on a recent night and I parked on Massachusetts Street. It was 5:38 p.m., and I got a parking ticket. When do we need to put money in the meters?

The parking meter hours downtown are 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, according to the city’s website. The meters do not need to be paid on Sundays or on holidays.

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Eddie_Haskell 5 months ago

6 pm? Since when? Way to pull a fast one. No wonder I don't bother with hip, cool, and vibrant Downtown Lawrence anymore.

clc1298 5 months ago

It's been that way and was in the Journal World prior to it beginning...about 3 years ago...

Renaissance 5 months ago

By "pulling a fast one", you must be referencing the fact that all the meters are clearly marked with the hours and days you need to feed them
If having to put 10 cents extra in a meter destroys your downtown experience, I'm guessing the economic benefit you were going to have on downtown was minimal.
I will ALWAYS support user based tax collection systems, such as parking meters and parking tickets rather than more property tax hikes which seems to be the go-to tool in our arsenal

The meters are not marked, at least not all of them. I was specifically looking recently b/c I couldn't remember if it ended at 5 or 6. It didn't say. So I put a dime in the meter. Then again my world would not have ended if I'd ended up with a $3 ticket.

lawrencian 5 months ago

The times are sometimes posted inside the "back" of the meter head, not always the "front" (where you put in the money). But they are posted in every meter, somehow. It's required.

consumer1 5 months ago

At 5:30 PM it is pretty dark and yo cannot read the tiny print inside the blurred glass on the meters. There needs to be signed posted .

oneeye_wilbur 5 months ago

You got Schumm for a Mayor, Amyx, longtime business person downtown, and paid Cathy Hamilton DLA. and none of them have the smarts to put signage on the meters.

You really trust them with your money? The bottom line, parking is not run professionally!

DillonBarnes 5 months ago

The last ticket I got downtown was $3. Yeah, it's a big parking conspiracy.

clc1298 5 months ago

...and repeat offenders are charged a hefty fine...and I believe, that when a person accumulates 5 or more in one day, such as those that would use a meter for work, are also charged a much larger fine....as it should be.

LarryNative 5 months ago

Lol. I know, $3 is a joke. I don't think some of these hayseeds have ever been to a real city where a parking ticket is $20-$50.

westcl 5 months ago

Don't give them any ideas.

like_n_Lawrence 5 months ago

Hours are in every meter's window.

Renaissance 5 months ago

All meters are marked with hours of operation. The blame is not on the commission, but on those who can't/don't read

KRichards 5 months ago

Your name should either be NOeye_wilbur or Can'tReadwithMyOneEye_Wilbur.

CrystalKU 5 months ago

All of the meters downtown list the hours on them, inside the glass, right below the time.

Old_Oread_Phart 5 months ago

Please, don't expect Wilbur to read. He's an expert.

gccs14r 5 months ago

6 p.m. has been the meter cutoff for awhile now. What I want to know is if the 15-minute meters are enforced after hours.

KRichards 5 months ago

That's a good question and I believe the answer is no.

consumer1 5 months ago

None of the meters are enforced after hours.

Andini 5 months ago

Just pay the ticket and be glad its not $55.00 like the one I got at the KU game the other night. It was marked but the sign was way behind me and I didn't seven see it since I turned around in a driveway.

KRichards 5 months ago

That had to be a city parking ticket correct? Because KU tickets are $30, I believe.

Andini 5 months ago

Yes. Right west of the KU bookstore on Crescent.

Liberty275 5 months ago

Just another reason to not go downtown.

Renaissance 5 months ago

If 25 cents keeps you from downtown, your economic benefit to downtown was going to be minimal. I'm guessing you've lost more change in the laundry than you have in any downtown meter.

PhilChiles 5 months ago

It's interesting to note the reaction to this from locals vs people from other cities. When I tell out of towners that the ticket is $3 they always, without fail, laugh and say something to the effect of "That's all it costs?" I'd challenge anyone to name a town with lower ticket prices.

PhilChiles 5 months ago

I hope no one googles an answer to that. Challenge is good for the next 5 minutes only.

Renaissance 5 months ago

Topeka has what they call an "oops ticket". If you have non-Shawnee county plates, you get a "oops - looks like you forgot to pay. Come visit us again". $0.

appleaday 5 months ago

That's because no one really wants to park in Topeka. They can't risk alienating the few who do.

KRichards 5 months ago

There is zero reason for anyone to want to go to Topeka, let alone spend money there.

JackMcKee 5 months ago

It's a little known fact but parking tickets are unconstitutional. That "fine" is actually just a suggestion. You are a sucker if you've actually been paying them.

like_n_Lawrence 5 months ago

ha ah ahahaha ha. .....and then comes a warrant in the mail. Yeah, let's listen to him!

OonlyBonly 5 months ago

Tell that to the KU student I saw brought in wearing "hotel" Orange one day - he had over 300 unpaid tickets.

Renaissance 5 months ago

I had a colleague have to be bailed out because he opted not to donate to his $300 stash of parking tickets. The surprise he got from the cops was that if unpaid, a $3 ticket ecomes $10. His $300 in tickets cost him $1,000.

patkindle 5 months ago

anyone that is so full of them selves they get stacks of upaid partking tickets deserves to spend some time in the cooler

j_ox 5 months ago

But your Honor, the sign said "Fine for Parking..."

weeslicket 5 months ago

nice one !

weeslicket 5 months ago

whoa now. hold your horses and buggies.

i thought it was NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE to get a parking spot downtown !?! how can this dilemma even exist?

CHEEZIT 5 months ago

Speaking of horse and buggy I got a ticket the morning of the Old-Fashioned Christmas parade! Bah-Humbug! I'm a townie so no big deal but I thought they didn't ticket until after!!!!

kansasplains1 5 months ago

In San Francisco, the tickets START at $75.00. In two weeks, if not paid, they go to 150. In two more weeks, they go to the DMV with yet more charges and within two months if not paid, your car is impounded. Lawrence is very inexpensive!

(I live in both places.)

Eddie_Haskell 5 months ago

Well whoopi freakin' doo. I used to love SF until I realized it's as full of itself as NY. You live in both places? Pick one, and don't pick Lawrence.

beatrice 5 months ago

Those were tickets? I always thought the $3 invoice was the price for parking.

BorderRat 5 months ago

Fines in Denver start at $25.00 and they have gotten so bad that they have placed sensors in the streets that zero out the meters if a car leaves with time still on the clock. No more getting lucky and finding time still on the meter.

Eddie_Haskell 5 months ago

I used to live somewhere where parking tickets were expensive. One morning when I was pretty drunk I walked past a car with a ticket on the windshield. I grabbed the ticket, wrote something really vulgar on it, and dropped it in the box. I don't know what happened after that.