I was reminded of this when I read a “Shower thoughts” post about clocks.

Where I live, there usually is free parking outside of stores and malls, but limited to a short time, such as 15 minutes or a couple of hours. People have parking discs that they rotate to show when they arrived, and put the discs up visible behind their windshields in their cars.

I have an automatic parking timer displayed in my windshield, that shows the time when I parked rounded up to the nearest half/whole hour. It’s a ”set and forget” thing, which auto adjusts to daylight savings. However, it speeds up 1 - 2 minutes a week, which I didn’t see as it rounds up the time, but I found out after a few months.

Once after parking, I took a quick dash into the store, took maybe 5 minutes. When I got back I had received a fine for the equivalent of 80 € for ”parking for 23 hours in a 2 hour spot”. They apparently don’t have to wait five minutes to write out the ticket if the parking timer was so off.

I didn’t contest the ticket, I considered it a learning experience and a reminder to never blindly trust technology.

  • cybervseas@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    2 年前

    Yeah. In some places they chalk the tires to track if the car has been sitting too long. It’s not the drivers job to track that. Why should it be?

    • Lumidaub@feddit.deEnglish
      91·
      2 年前

      I don’t even have a driver’s license so no horse in this race but they’re using a parking space for free so I don’t think it’s too much to ask to cooperate and spend 10 seconds setting a dial.

    • SaituriHiiva@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      82·
      2 年前

      Of course it’s primarily the drivers job to make sure they don’t park illegally, the enforcement is there only to catch those who do not. Setting a disk that states when you got there is not a big requirement but does help make sure some drivers don’t overstay on limited parking space.

      Driving (or owning) a car is not a common right, it’s a proviledge to be earned by being able to show you are responsible enough to steer a vehicle that can very easily end up maiming or killing someone. This is why you need a license to drive and why it is ok to give added responsibilities, like using a parking disc if needed. And if you fail to fill these responsibilities, you should be fined or in more serious cases lose your license.

    • Spitfire@pawb.socialEnglish
      2·
      2 年前

      Around here it was made illegal to chalk the tires. Now they chalk the ground right next to the tire but I never figured out how they know it’s not a different car by the time they come around. I’ve never seen different colored chalks either.