Chicago parking meters: Some machines freeze up, and motorists fume - Inoperable machines only slightly higher than usual, parking firm says

Chicago parking meters: Some machines freeze up, and motorists fume - Inoperable machines only slightly higher than usual, parking firm says
By James Janega
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
December 11, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-chicago-frozen-parking-meterdec11,0,1092693.story


Late for an appointment at the home of a client, personal trainer Meghan McLaughlin recounted how she shivered in Thursday morning's cold and tried to feed a Gold Coast parking meter. But as she pressed, the dollar button stuck down. Thinking fast, she pressed the quarter button. It stuck, too.

She threw up her hands.

"It's like the next shoe to drop in this parking meter debacle," said McLaughlin, 37, of Lincoln Park, who called the Tribune on her cell phone as she returned with trepidation to see if there was a ticket on her car.

Certainly in the minds of some frustrated motorists, frozen meters fed more resentment over the city's newly privatized meters Thursday. But city and parking company officials objected.

The problem was not widespread, said Chicago Parking Meters LLC. It was also to be expected, said Mayor Richard Daley.

"There's frozen parking meters, frozen water hydrants, frozen doors, frozen cars. They're all out there," he said. The old parking meters also froze, Daley said, insisting the problem isn't linked to the pay boxes that have replaced meters around the city. "No, no, they've always frozen," he said.

Of Chicago's 4,200 parking boxes and 600 meters, about 90 weren't working Thursday morning, said parking meter company spokeswoman Avis LaVelle. The number was slightly higher than a normal day, in part because of "frozen buttons and frozen-over credit card slots," she said, and is based on complaints. If the toll-free number on the box is called, you can park for free, she added. Without calling, you risk a ticket.

Yet while the increase in inoperable meters represented a statistical blip, it also revealed Chicago motorists' readiness to be outraged amid the simmering resentment surrounding the more-expensive privatized meters.

"People have the mistaken impression that there's some kind of systemwide failure," LaVelle said. "It's not accurate."

There is even a way to build a defense in the event you're mistakenly ticketed, she said. A motorist encountering a frozen or broken meter should call a toll-free number on the meter -- 877-242-7901.

As an additional safety net, parking enforcement officers also are supposed to verify that boxes aren't working, LaVelle said. She urged people to call on their own anyway. "If you've done what you need to do in terms of reporting, then you can park there," she said.

But McLaughlin didn't know that Thursday. With her client waiting and one option left, she stabbed the button for the maximum amount on the meter at Clark Street and Burton Place, but it too jammed and froze.

She needed 75 minutes; the machine had recorded 40 minutes before it jammed. McLaughlin took a cell phone photo, tucked the partial receipt into her windshield and braced for the worst.

She didn't get a ticket. But when she returned an hour later, two out of the three buttons she'd pressed were still stuck down.

Tribune reporter John Byrne contributed to this report. jjanega@tribune.com