F'in Parking Tickets

lmb5109

I am so sick of the damn parking meters in this city! I went out to dinner with friends on Friday and I was 10 minutes late going out to get 2 more hours of parking, already had a $50 parking ticket.

The hubs works a few days a week in the west loop, he goes out there 5 minutes late today to get 3 more hours, he already had a $50 ticket!

I swear I am going to sell this damn car! I wish we weren't dependant on it. We only really need it to do our weekly shopping, visit his family in the burbs, and my family in Milwaukee. Between the $100 yearly parking sticker, $75 a month to park in our building (yeah I know that's low), spending $35 so far this month in parking meters, and $100 in parking tickets, I'm ready to bash my head against the wall!

Who here doesn't have a car? Can you please give me some good reasons to sell the damn thing?

mtc2009

We have 2 cars but definitely don't need both, and I could see us surviving without even one. Like you, the main things we use a car for are for grocery shopping (which we could walk to if we really had to, its not super close so not ideal for winter, but it is only a 10 min walk) and to go to family or friend functions in the burbs. 

I do have a friend who got rid of his car and signed up for iGo.  I don't know much about it, but maybe that's worth looking into if you really want to get rid of your car.

PattyOGreen

We have 1 car that sits unused for the most part. We pretty much just use it to go to Costco once a month and to leave town on the weekends, sometimes. We keep it because it's paid off, and we only have liability coverage. We both have monthly passes on the CTA, so that helps with our decision to use transit since we've already paid for it.

roses12985

We don't have a car and I HATE it!  Everything is such a PITA and there's often times it would be so much nicer to have a car.  We had to rent a car to be able to leave town this weekend, and we can only do a major grocery shopping trip when we get a Zipcar.  If we could afford a car, we'd have one, even though parking in Lakeview is such a b*tch.  I would think long and hard before you give it up.

cirrus319

I hear you on the parking tickets. Chicago is AWFUL with them. I have never paid so many parking tickets in my life before moving here. Especially the "you are within 8 feet of an alley" rule (well this was in Evanston. WTF? The curbs not painted and there are not signs stating that rule.

Even after all the bitching though, I love my car. Its probably because I still feel like an LA girl at heart and I love to drive.

romagrrl

It's awful.  I'm usually pretty good about it but I've slipped up and gotten three in the past two months. I love "the fines double if you don't pay promptly" rule.  

 

 

drmetsrg

I can't vent about Parking tickets, but don't get me started about the damn red light violations. Its called the flow of traffic. If I slammed on brakes that I cause an accident, if I go through its a ticket. Every other week either my husband or I get one in the mail. The best is neither one of us drive to work so its just from running errands.