Most Erie parking meters aren't cheaters

By MEGHAN GORDON

August 22, 2000 Web posted at: 4:30 PM EDT (2030 GMT)

ERIE, Pennsylvania (Erie Time News) -- Bingo chips, quarters on strings and beer-can tabs. In the 35 years Ronald Cleaver has been executive director of the Erie Parking Authority, he has seen every sort of gadget used by Erie drivers to cheat parking meters out of a few free minutes.

Perhaps those clever drivers rigged slugs because they thought the meters would cheat them if they didn't cheat the meters first.

Kathy Hotchkiss, who parked in front of the courthouse, said she doesn't trust the meters because she has often put in money for half an hour and returned 20 minutes later to find an expired meter.

But according to a Times Publishing Company test of parking meters across Erie, Hotchkiss and other drivers who harbor skepticism against the metal timers shouldn't.

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All the non-digital meters tested throughout downtown gave more time than was paid, with an average of more than 17 minutes of free time. Three out of 22 of the meters tested near Hamot Medical Center, Perry Square, Dobbins Landing and Peach Street gave an extra half hour.

Cleaver said the majority of the meters are set to give six to 10 minutes leeway as a buffer for any malfunctions -- or just to give drivers a few extra minutes to make it back from long bank lines or slow restaurant waiters.

In addition to the intended leeway, though, the meters slow down over the years for the same reason people slow down in the winter: "Good old Erie weather," Cleaver said.

Other malfunctions besides wrong timing include frozen and jammed quarter slots. During the winter when drivers pull warm quarters out of their pockets and drop them in cold meters, condensation forms, freezing the coin chutes.

"A parking meter sets out there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year," he said. "It doesn't get any sick time, vacation or holidays."

The meters are calibrated only when the Parking Authority receives them new from the factory or when customers call with a complaint, Cleaver said. After receiving a complaint, the entire meter will be removed from the street and tested indoors.

If the meter is incorrectly calibrated, the customer will receive a refund and the meter will be reset. But if the meter proves to be right on time, the Parking Authority takes the customer to traffic court.

"Very seldom do we get complaints that they give too much free time," Cleaver said with a laugh. "That doesn't bother us so much."

Cleaver said the five or so people who call to complain about fast meters each day make his job easier.

"We like it when somebody says, I got short time on meter Number 98," he said. "And 99 out of 100 times, the general public is very honest."

Two years ago, 140 digital meters replaced aging mechanical ones, mostly in off-street lots. Now 300 electronic meters are scattered across the city, and Cleaver said he hopes all off-street parking lots will have the new meters by the end of this year.

Hotchkiss said she would come to downtown more often if she didn't have to pay for on-street parking. Instead, she sticks closer to Millcreek for shopping.

"It's a pain in the butt," Hotchkiss said. "If parking were free, it would bring a lot more people downtown. Now, they have to worry if they're staying in the shop too long."

But Cleaver said most communities that have tried switching to free downtown parking, like Meadville, quickly realized the necessity of the meters. Hamot Medical Center's parking lot, for example, would be filled by employees instead of patients if parking was free, he said.

"There wouldn't be a downtown because the employees would all be parking there," he said. "You'd have to walk to the hospital. Could you imagine the chaos if we didn't have meters?"

Cleaver said Erie's meters, some of which are 20 to 25 years old, are another piece of Americana that most people have grown to accept -- slow timers and all.

"People have come to see parking meters the same as Chevies, apple pies and baseball," he said.

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