The downtown parking system is a money grab.
With the old-style metered parking, sometimes there would be time left on the meter, and you could see that time clearly. If you needed a short stay you could park without paying as someone else had already paid for that time.
With the new system you can’t see if there is time left for a particular stall and there may be time left.
In such situations, you pull in and park and pay for that stall again. You have to estimate how long you will be there, so to be on the cautious side, you put in a little extra.
If you leave early, there will be time left over again, and if you don’t leave exactly on time you get a ticket.
If you don’t estimate correctly how long you will be in that stall and you come back to put more money in to extend your time, it is not added on to the time that you paid for already but only gives you parking privileges from when you put your new money in.
So you are paying again for time that you have already paid for on that stall. If I go downtown to shop why would I park at a meter?
Angus Macdonald
Victoria