More Indy Parking Meter Tales

I had to share with you the musings of Urban Times editor Bill Brooks in his latest column "Babblin Brooks" concerning an unexpected experience he had recently while paying to use one of the new electronic meters downtown. Bill was an unabashed supporter of Mayor Greg Ballard's 50-year lease of the parking meter assets to Ballard's pay-to-play contractor friends.

Once upon a recent time, I thought I was up-to-date on the downtown parking meter program. Silly me. One bitter-cold January morning I swiped a credit card at a meter in the 400 block of Pennsylvania Street, then--thinking that most meters had a two-hour limit--quickly hit the "maximum time" button. It was, after all, very, very cold. That's when the meter's little message board told me I had paid for 10 hours. Yikes. When did a 10-hour limit happen? I remember when, in response to merchants' concerns, ParkIndy expanded evening protocols to four-hour limits. But 10? Surely I would have noticed that, being a newsletter editor and all that. And who needs to park for 10 hours during the daytime along Pennsylvania Street?

Supposedly one of the goals of the new parking meter program was to encourage more turnover of parking spaces. I've been surprised, too, at how many of the meters downtown allow you to initially pay for more than a 2-hour time period.