Special Friday Five: All Things Parking — Gendered, Fined, Electronic, and Broken

Reserved parking signs may have to be modified to say “for women only” after the release of a new series of “easy” parking spots for female motorists in one German town. (via JustBathroomSigns)

Triberg, Germany, has a new series of “easy” parking spots designated for female drivers. These disparaging parking spots are generally wider and better lit than average parking places, and are demarcated by a large female gender symbol.  Placed in certain parking lots and on selected roads, the parking spots will be used legally only by female drivers, and were started as a ruse to increase tourism by bringing attention to an otherwise fading German town. The town will also have parking spots that are designated especially for men, which are generally smaller than average spaces and have columns and other obstacles to circumvent. Triberg isn’t the world’s first town to introduce this controversial parking ideology – the Chinese city of Tianjin also features female-only parking spots which are wider, better lit, and are marked with pink road paint.

Camden Town parking enforcers took to the streets out-of-uniform in the pursuit of higher wages, causing detrimental parking ticketing losses for the city of London (via Camden New Journal)

In London’s Camden Town neighborhood, parking wardens responsible for distributing tickets and fines for illegally parked vehicles went on strike, causing the city £100,000 in losses. Parking wardens demanded higher pay, and so long as the strike goes on, free parking will be available for motorists in Camden Town. Strikers claim that if their current protest does nothing, they will be striking during the Olympics – an embarrassment for the city of London. The city council said that drivers should still observe parking/traffic rules throughout the remainder of the strike.

California’s new law prohibits parking enforcers from ticketing motorists who park at broken meters. (Image courtesy of TheExpiredMeter)

California Governor Jerry Brown signed into legislation a law barring parking enforcement officials from issuing tickets to motorists parking at broken parking meters.  The law was sponsored by California’s American Automobile Association (AAA), which has over 10 million members- many of them resentful of California’s ambiguous rules for parking at broken meters. Apparently, the rules and fines varied from city to city and weren’t always posted. State Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, said the bill was essential to “help assure that California drivers are not ticketed based on unfair or unknown parking rules.”  The new law will take effect Jan. 1, 2013 and will allow cities to adopt different rules for parking as long as motorists are given far warning in advance.

 Disabled drivers share parking with able-bodied electronic vehicle owners. (Image courtesy of GreenCarReports)

Adam Meislik, an electric vehicle owner, has joined the ranks of unfortunate motorists ticketed for charging their electric vehicles in spaces that apparently double as handicap parking spots.  Meislik parked his EV car at LAX airport and was ticketed $363 dollars for violating a handicap parking space. Meislik claims that the signage—which posted a handicap parking sign and a EV parking only sign, made it unclear as to whether the spot was reserved for EV charging or for disabled parking. The ticket, however, seems to mean that the spot is reserved for both- handicapped electric drivers only. Due to the limited number of EV vehicles on the road today, parking garages usually double handicap parking spots with electric vehicle charging stations. The result is clear: confusion and lots of ticketing. The short-term answer? Read the signs carefully and check in with the parking garage to make sure it’s actually okay to park in marked spots. In the long-term, though, this reflects a need for both EV spots and handicapped parking spots.

Birmingham, Michigan teams up with Parkmobile, an app that allows drivers to pay for parking on the go. (Image via Bob Johnson)

Drivers in Birmingham, Michigan got a major boost from Parkmobile USA, a parking app that allows drivers to pay for parking from their smartphone. Drivers can still have the option of lugging around quarters and manually paying meters—or if they have Parkmobile, can pay from anywhere and on the go. Birmingham City Commission agreed to contract with Parkmobile at a low $200/month in enforcement fees, though the city’s parking revenue will likely increase, as drivers with prepaid parking tend to park for longer than those who pay manually for the hour.

– N. Gilliat and S. Walsh