From WiseBread:
Chicago is testing a coinless parking meter system, The Tribune reported yesterday. You might think that would be great for consumers, eliminating annoyances like the hunt for coins and the need to pay for more time than you actually use.
It’s true, drivers would no longer have to plug the meter with change. But apparently the City of Chicago considers parkers’ tendancy to overpay more of a feature than a bug. In fact, the city is apparently so consumer-hostile that it plans to keep parkers’ overpayments and charge the next customer for the very same time.
The city claims their losing thousands of dollars from people “piggy backing” off time that’s unused from previous cars.
In other words, if you pay for 30 minutes in the parking meter and leave after 20, the city claims that anyone who parks there and uses/takes advantage of those remaining minutes left on the meter is costing the city money. They think they should be able to charge two people for that same parking spot during those left over 10 minutes. With the new meters, the time on the meter will be wiped clean every time a car leaves with minutes remaining on the clock.
Just another example of a governmental authority taking all they can from Joe Citizen.
Seems like many politicians would believe that the salary you get is actually their money and anything you get to take home is simply, “the cost of doing business” and of course, like any good business man, they’ll do all they can to lesson the cost of doing business.