Category Archives: Chicago Parking Meter
Parking Meter Payboxes Think Pink For October
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and even Chicago’s parking meter payboxes are getting involved.
Each of the 4600 payboxes Chicago Parking Meters, LLC uses around the city are displaying a bright pink ribbon decal on the face of the machine.
“We are continuing our effort to raise awareness about the dangers of Breast Cancer,” said CPM CEO Dennis Pedrelli on the CPM website. “We are happy to support to this cause and hope that seeing pink ribbons on pay boxes citywide will remind us to take good care of ourselves.”
Bob Sirott Has More Thoughts On Parking Meters
Bob Sirott’s One More Thing About Parking: MyFoxCHICAGO.com
Fox Chicago News’ Bob Sirott has never been a fan of Chicago’s parking meter lease deal, but he has a few positive (and negative) thoughts to share about parking meters and parking in general.
Here’s his full piece, “Bob Sirott’s One More Thing About Parking.”
PARK(ing) Day In Chicago Brings Out Street Creativity
Architecture for Humanity's several space PARK(ing) Day installation even has a movie screen
Stopped by the Logan Square contingent of National PARK(ing) Day last Friday.
“PARK(ing) Day is an annual, worldwide event that invites citizens everywhere to transform metered parking spots into temporary parks for the public good,” according to the PARK(ing) Day website.
The Chicago branch of the event had a few participants not only in Logan Square but also over on Southport near Addison in Lakeview.
Chicago’s Parking Meter Maker Faces Series Of Setbacks
Cale Parking USA, the supplier of every parking meter pay station on Chicago streets, has had a really bad few weeks.
First, back in late July, during a review for a potential contract with Oklahoma City Cale was up for, The Oklahoman newspaper reported about some high profile embarrassing failures of Cale’s pay and display meter units here in Chicago. The paper reported on one incident where hundreds of their pay boxes failed downtown and then, during an early season ice storm, about the majority of all Cale’s payboxes froze up (a story broken by this website) and finally (in another story this site helped to report) issues with the accuracy of the timing on Cale payboxes.
The PMZ: Chicago’s Parking Meter Zoo
Last week this site in a piece entitled “The World’s Loneliest Parking Meters,” reported on an area of the city with plenty of metered parking spaces, but no one there to park.
The area is essentially adjacent to the University of Illinois Medical District and just on the cusp of Pilsen between Ashland and Damen.
But a pair of amateur videographers have come up with their own name for the area: The PMZ or Parking Meter Zoo.
The World’s Loneliest Parking Meters
Over $400,000 Invested In Meters Where No Cars Park
One of 72 newly installed multi-space parking meter stands lonely and unused in a desolate area of the South Side
Nostalgic types might consider it a sad day when the last of Chicago’s old fashioned single head parking meters got replaced in late spring in a desolate section of the near South Side.
Chicago Parking Meters, LLC recently installed over 70 pay and display machines in June, after removing the city’s last remaining single head meters a few weeks previous. But the area, roughly bounded by Ashland & Damen, between 15th and 13th has plenty of spaces to park, but with no one actually parking there.
But perhaps what is most interesting is that CPM was forced to spend over $400,000 to install expensive, cutting edge parking meter pay boxes for several thousand metered spaces, in an area that will never generate enough revenue for CPM to ever see a return on their investment there.
Parking Meter Pay Box Failure In Chicago Resurfaces In Oklahoma City
Remember the “Massive Meter Meltdown” back in spring of 2009?
The late May weather in Chicago was beautiful when LAZ Parking, on behalf of Chicago Parking Meters, LLC was finishing installing hundreds of electronic, multi-space pay and display units downtown Chicago.
But just days after installing the units about 250 of the pay boxes just stopped working. Panicked drivers didn’t know what to do. Parking Enforcement Aides and other ticket writers were instructed to cease ticketing. The city lost thousands of dollars in ticket revenue that day and the Daley Administration, CPM and LAZ were all deservedly red-faced.
Incredibly, this story has come back to haunt Cale Parking USA, the manufacturer of Chicago’s pay and display parking meter machines in a bid for a contract in Oklahoma City, OK according to a story by The Oklahoman newspaper.
Where In The World Is Waldo The Geek?
The answer is beautiful Boulder, CO.
Visiting a few friends and relatives for a short visit.
Guess what? Even Colorado has parking meters.
Still had to pay $1.25 per hour in downtown Boulder.
Be back in a few days.
Expired: 5-Minute Parking Meter Grace Period Ends
Very quietly this past Friday, Chicago drivers lost a small, but helpful tool in fighting expired meter parking tickets.
On April 1st, the 5-minute parking meter grace period ordinance ended, a mere 14 months after Mayor Daley had the ordinance passed back in February, 2010.
The law allowed the city to non-suit (throw out) the ticket for drivers who received an expired meter parking violation, five minutes or less from the expiration of their meter receipt.
Mayor Daley offered the grace period as a short term salve to quell the anger of frustrated drivers unhappy with the rapid meter rate increases and poor execution of the Chicago’s parking meter lease deal.
The Geek’s Believe It Or Don’t: Three Wards In City Completely Free Of Parking Meters
Believe it or don’t.
There are actually wards in the City of Chicago that don’t have any parking meters.
Three wards in fact.
The 18th, 21st, and 34th.
All three wards are clustered together in the far southside of the city.
It’s not really surprising or a coincidence that these three wards don’t have any parking meters. Unlike more prosperous and traffic congested wards in Chicago, these three wards, which host such troubled neighborhoods as Ashburn, West Pullman, and Roseland, are not considered to have healthy retail areas which may require parking meters to manage the parking environment.
