Badge heavy meter maids is the problem. The parking within 30′ of an intersection that is not signed is below the belt. However, if you choose to ignore feeding a meter and get tagged, that comes under the heading of “tough darts” for you.

If meter fines are too cheap people will simply pay the fine and park anywhere and call the fine a cheap place to park.

Heard Paul J. on 670 KBOI a few years back having a beef with the 30′ deal for some event downtown that he attened and got a ticket for this same thing.

I also parked unaware near Boise State (I usually ride my bike but it was very snowy that day). I am at school almost the entire day, and I come back to find two tickets for one violation. According to Stew Prince (the manager) they can ticket as much as they want every two hours. Totaled 30 dollars, and if I didn’t pay in two weeks it would be fifty dollars.

That’s where your revenue is coming from. Poor college students like me.

Maybe some of the aggressive parking enforcement folks should give the BPD lessons on how to enforce speeding and red light running laws.

Fix what? This is done by design so, from their standpoint, there is nothing to fix. Their system is working just fine! I remember the 30′ thing from posted signs in other areas, but this is CS!

The parking patrol has a very simple job, walk around, when a vehicle is in violation, give the vehicle a ticket. The parking staff do not know if the vehicle has been there 1 minute or 1 hour. The staff who work in parking are the favorite target of angry motorists, who would do better to be egnaged at the policy level inseatd of the street level. That being said, I have worked in the parking field as a consultant and I am no fan of the strategy of burying parking regulations into small print city codes and then expect each citizen and visitor of the state to read and understand all the rules prior to spending their money and time downtown. Such an approach is a hinderance to the community. There are solutions in the industry such as the computerized handheld ticket issuance devices. On demand these devices can show the entire citation history of the car. If the vehicle has not been cited before, that is a good opportunity for a warning to be issued to educate the motorist. Prior violations would be a revenue fine. In the industry we say the goal of enforcement is complaince not revenue. To a good citizen a warning is just as effective as a dollar value citation. When I managed a parking enforcement operation in another state, I ensured a vehciles first citation was always a warning, and we inserted a sheet of parking regulations with the warning. I also insisted that my enforcement staff issue at least 20% warnings each day. In summary this is a policy and management issue, not overbearing enforcement staff.

I would also suggest that ACHD should be painting the curbs 30′ from the stop sign red. This is done in many communities and I believe it to be the better practice. Too many signs and you have sign graffitti and the result is people do not notice or understand all the signs. Who does not know what a curb painted red means?

Here is a link to the Idaho Driver’s manual. Read it and quit whining.

http://itd.idaho.gov/dmv/DriverServices/documents/driver_manual.pdf

Bikeboy, I couldn’t agree more here are some other ideas:

Get rid of libraries, I get all my information from the internet so why should I pay for poor people to get free video rentals and internet access at the library.

Charge for Police and Fire services based on use statistics by subdivision, so all the poor people in the trailer parks beating up their spouses and kids and cooking meth will pay more property taxes for the emergency services they regularly use. This will incentivize the poor to clean up their neighborhoods.

We can then use the financial savings to help subsidize the cost of the expensive equipment needed for gated communities for law abiding contributing citizens such as CCTV, automatic gates and higher walls.

I’m glad I’ve triggered a little conversation on this topic. I like the concept of a warning on first offense. Thanks.

And that’s the reason I never go to downtown Boise if I can possibly avoid it.
I’ve always seen parking meters as a “Keep out of our town!” sign, or at least a “Stop for a brief time, spend money, and then go the hell away” sign.
They don’t want people hanging around, browsing the stores, maybe buying things, eating in the restaurants, attending events, etc.

However, in most cities any bigger than a football field, *all* no-parking areas (whether near corners, near stop signs, at pedestrian crosswalks, whatever) are painted red.
Of course, the cities that do that don’t get to rip off thousands of dollars from us non-lawyer types who can’t possibly keep track of which laws apply where and when they were changed. (Come to think of it, neither can lawyers — or even judges. Sit in a courtroom for a spell and listen to them argue, and also notice how often the judge grabs his law books to check out a law he’s not familiar with.)

The city says the whole thing is about keeping traffic moving; it obviously doesn’t do that, or the city wouldn’t be raking in thousands of dollars all the time. So it’s obviously really all about bringing in money.

And, two questions: The streets are owned by ACHD, so how come the city can set the laws and collect the meter coins and fines?

And, if you really think about it, the streets are owned by all of us, not the city or ACHD or county or state. Yep, they’re owned by we the people, the same as parks and libraries are. Wonder how people would react if they had to feed a meter to spend a few minutes in a park or library and then pay a big fine if they stayed a few minutes too long?
(Oh! I hope no city officials read that last part, or you’ll be seeing parking meters popping up beside picnic tables and benches, and eventually a ticket booth at the entrance to the library where you pay the admission fee.

Once, many years ago, the tiny city of Murphy had one (Yep, just one) parking meter. Somebody shot it! Them thar cowboy types in Owyhee County know how to deal with robbers!

I stopped going to Eight Street Marketplace for lunch before it even became Bodo. They had wiped out most of the available parking spaces and where I was going to lunch did not provide parking lot validation. So it dropped off my lunch list.

We may be responsible for knowing the law. But with unmarked corners and and others with parking meters within six feet or so of the corner, how are we supposed to intuitively know that we have to leave 30 feet elsewhere? And if that is consistently enforced (not just when Boise is low on pocket change) it wipes out even more spaces and makes downtown that much less friendly.

Years ago, I got ticketed at 5:50 p.m. when I had dashed into Ballou Latimer Camera Store for five minutes to grab film for a job that night. Tickets were only $1 then but I was livid. There was no one around to need that space but the parking enforcer — and me.

I am reminded of ‘double secret probation’ in Animal House. I have found that government gets cute with such secret fines when they feel strapped for money and know tax and fee changes will be fought so…they pretend there is some morality in hidden fees and fines.

Years ago I worked at 9th and State. At that time there was no garage space available for all day parking, and the area around Boise High was also limited by time. So I parked at a meter, collected tickets and paid them in a bunch every few weeks. One day my spouse called and told me the Sheriff was at our house with a warrant for my arrest. I owed about $40.00 bucks – fortunately I had already mailed the check so they didn’t drag me away.

We don’t go downtown much any more except to see how much things have changed.

Dog;
What’s an “unmarked fire hydrant”? That one’s a no-brainer and should get a ticket.

Glen T., For one thing it’s a hydrant that hasn’t been paintd red in years in a very public place where parking space is at a premium. The curb near it is also not painted red. It is easy to miss unless of course you are a dog. I use a sliding scale with my warning notes. If I see a fatcat SUV or rediculous PU truck parked there I figure they have the coin to pay the fine. If it is a blue collar working stiff car I leave a note on it.

Not that I take the time to read it. I remember it from drivers education 13 years ago and know plenty of people who have got tickets for it all over the valley, not just downtown.

You all should watch Parking Wars on A&E. I think you have all been on there. If you think we have it bad check out the tv show. I think two new episodes air tonight. It is very entertaining.