Parking Meter Madness
Posted by marissalicious on April 18, 2008
As I was crossing across Whitis street on campus today I was for some reason drawn to the flashing “expired” sign on several parking meters. I very rarely have to park at a meter. This is mainly because I don’t drive anywhere unless it’s late at night, when the meters are free and also because I am horrible at parallel parking. So I was really surprised by how little time a quarter gets you at a meter around Austin. I asked around and it seems like the price for time on campus (a quarter gets you a whopping 15 minutes) is pretty true around the city. For residents of Austin or Houston, this may seem insignificant, but I come from a town where a quarter gets you an HOUR and 15 minutes.
That’s right ladies and gentleman. In the town of Corpus Christi, TX you can park for over two hours for less than fifty cents. Jealous? You should be. I attempted to look up how much it cost to get 15 minutes at a meter in New York City and cities of comparable population but I couldn’t find any information. So if you know, please enlighten me. I did however find some cool stuff about the kind of meters in New York City. Apparently they have solar-powered meters which look kind of outer-spacey, which is pretty awesome.
Long story short, I’m glad I can’t parallel park. I save tons of money walking.
