So what do most people do if they are in a hurry? They say ‘F’ck it’ and move on. If someone is in a hurry and they find a parking spot DTSF but don’t have any change to feed the meter (that doesn’t have a CC reader) they will probably not go looking for another spot and just risk the ticket. Maybe that is what the city is hoping for.

You can either listen or read the interview;

GRABAR: I think so. Essentially, parking enforcement serves as a subset of what is now known as revenue-driven policing. And the idea here is that cities take advantage of these parking laws to try and get as much money out of people as possible, but not in the way that you would think, right? I mean, I think this is a common misconception. Meter rates are actually, for the most part, pretty low in most cities, which is to say they are below the market clearing price that would create empty spaces on every block. Most cities make more money from illegal parking fines than they do from meters and garage taxes put together. So, for example, New York City in 2015 made $565 million in parking fines. It’s the biggest category of fines that the city issues. But they made just $200 million from parking meters.

So what’s essentially being run here – and I don’t know if cities are conscious of this – is a system that is poorly designed that almost seems like the incentives are in favor of illegal parking because for the city, that’s where they make their money.

I would have loved to been a fly on the wall when the Parking Director, Matt Nelson and Mayor TenHaken had a conversation about getting creative with raising more parking fees. Probably went something like this;

Nelson says, “Paul, we just gotta find a way to get people to park in the ramps more.”

TenHaken responds, “Thank goodness I stopped that naked Indian mural, because that certainly would have drove drivers away.”

11 Thoughts on “Maybe this is the reason Sioux Falls is limiting credit card parking meters

  1. scott on May 20, 2023 at 8:54 am said:

    that was my thought as well. this is just a way to increase parking fines.

  2. "Woodstock" on May 21, 2023 at 12:49 pm said:

    “Say, I had a dream last night that A.I. helped us solve the climate change issue, then after that, A.I. began to kill us all off”…. 🙁

  3. D@ily Spin on May 22, 2023 at 9:37 am said:

    Are meters justified? It seems there’s often some sort of upgrade such that they’re never paid for. I’d say put in a quarter if you have one. Otherwise, tap on it with a credit card. If there’s ever a fine, get a hearing and say you thought it was pay per tap like elsewhere. Always contest city citations. Make it cost them more than they collect. Have you ever seen a lawyer pay a citation? They know there’s no enforcement or record keeping.

  4. D@ily Spin on May 22, 2023 at 9:49 am said:

    This is the city that spends millions to put makeup on a bridge. It’s still a bridge. The city that builds a parking garage that doesn’t face Mecca and can’t even be used as a wailing wall.

  5. D@ily Spin on May 22, 2023 at 9:53 am said:

    Are the 3 Stooges back from Bloomberg?

  6. My guess is that the city doesn’t like paying the fee to process card payments at the meter or through the app. I wouldn’t be surprised if MORE people were actually using the meters versus not, but the city bringing in less or flat revenue due to the fees. Increase the rate a little bit and put smart meters and/or pay stations everywhere!

  7. l3wis on May 22, 2023 at 3:05 pm said:

    That would be the logical solution? Right? The problem is, as Councilor Stehly warned with the Bunker Ramp, we don’t have a tenant so we are paying the bonds with the parking fees and this is what is causing anxiety over fees being down. And as the article I linked pointed out, it is much easier to raise money thru fines then fees.

  8. anominous on May 23, 2023 at 10:32 am said:

    maybe the city realized all these newly moved here clubcab refugees from the texas power grid dont have credit cards

  9. anominous on May 23, 2023 at 10:35 am said:

    the city should remove about 6-8 feet of the sidewalk/dining surfaces downtown to fit these rigs in there properly and make parking free all day, cuz if these rigs stick out too far into the street it is hard for the other rigs to pass by

  10. Mike Lee Zitterich on May 28, 2023 at 10:41 am said:

    People often do not think of the cost of the ‘credit card transactions’ to the business, or organization providing the service. Not only do credit card companies charge you, the consumer 2 to 10% interest on the purchase, “Merchant Providers” are charging the business or entity providing the service statement fees, transaction fees, machine fees, and other fees that add up to nearly 5.5% per credit card swipe, which digs into the profits of the business itself. American Express is he worst, they charge merchants some of the highest rates humanly possible, which of course is how AMerican Express can afford to give away all their “perks” to the consumers, such as airline miles, gasoline perks, etc.

    At our repair shop, after doing the Accounting for my dads business for 20 years, I often kept track of every little expense imaginable, and what I found, on our annula $500-600,000 annual Revenues, the “Credit Card Merchant Fees” cost us nearly $2,500-3,500 per month for a total of $36,000 a year in costs.

    Folks that $36,000 was equal to paying ‘rent” on our property for one year.

    I would almost bet, that it is much cheaper as CITY, to go back to an ALL CASH TRANSACTION, saving the ‘taxpayers’ money, let alone, the fact is – CASH IS KING.

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