closed #199537
Parking Meters and Citations
- Case Date:
- 12/4/2024
I park on 6th street between Morton and College 5 days out of the week as I work on the square. About 60% of the time the meter will read my card as declined which causes me to move spots or try to find change to fill up the meter. I had to move 3 times on 12/2 because the first meter was blank, I was told to move and when I did that meter declined my card so I moved again and that one took my card. The same issue happened today but I didn’t have a space to move to so I put in what change I had, went into where I work and got 4 more quarters and put those in and then proceeded to do the pay by phone via a guest on the app to add the needed 6.5 hours. My confirmation email told me I had until 7:03pm but the amount paid total should have went until about 8:30pm. With no guarantee of not getting a ticket, my coworker went down and put enough in to go until 8:58pm just to be safe. So a total of almost $16 to park for 8.5 hours. The meters not working properly is a continued issue for me. I have lived in Bloomington my entire life and I’ve worked downtown for 4 years always using metered parking. It wouldn’t be a big deal to me if this didn’t happen to me multiple times a week. I call every so often to inform the city of Bloomington parking about the issues I have and I’m usually told there is no way to prevent getting a ticket even if the order is put in, I just have to contest the ticket with hopes it will be dismissed. It is just frustrating to me because I always pay and I’m more often than not completely inconvenienced or late to work trying to deal with the issues with the meter. It’s just disappointing as a life resident here that has to use that parking every day. I’m hoping this reaches someone that can try to address some of these issues.