Seattle just made it easier to ticket you

It was an idea, city officials claimed, that would make it easier for you to pay for parking. No more would you have to take the sticker from the kiosk, then affix it to your window.

Now, with a pay-by-plate system, it’s easier for you to pay for parking. But it’s also easier for the City of Seattle to ticket you if you’re a few seconds late to leave the spot.

During Monday night’s council meetings, virulently anti-car Councilmember Mike O’Brien spoke in favor of the new system. When he speaks in favor of a system that is supposedly easier for drivers, red flags should immediately go up. But when you hear why he’s in support, it becomes clear.

“Whether you use a smartphone app or a cash or credit card at the station, what this does is it streamlines the ability of parking enforcement officers to check one specific place to see if a vehicle has paid or not, as opposed to checking both on their database and the sticker,” O’Brien said.

This move is about streamlining parking enforcement officers. It’s not about your ease of use. When you go from checking two spots to one, it’s more efficient and easier for you to get a ticket. Does that seem like a policy you should celebrate with O’Brien? He doesn’t care about how easy it is to park; he’s someone who wants to get rid of parking spots for bike lanes. If there weren’t parking spots, he would be a happy man. Remember, this is the same councilmember who wanted to exempt abandoned RVs from many of our parking laws.

O’Brien isn’t the only anti-car activist who likes this move.

“I’ve used this exact same system in Vancouver, B.C. and the biggest challenge for me was realizing how easy it was,” said Jonathan Hopkins, Executive Director of Commute Seattle, told KOMO News. “I felt like, ‘Wait, I don’t have to go back to my car? What am I missing something?’ It just takes a whole step out of it.”

The biggest challenge for him was to realize it was easy? He sounds very intelligent. Commute Seattle is an anti-car group that pushes bikes and bus commuting, not driving. Why would an organization that hates cars push for a system that benefits drivers? Funding.

Under the current system, if you paid for 2 hours of parking but only used 45 minutes, you could keep the sticker on your window and move to another spot. Under this new system? You can’t – and the city keeps the money, which is funneled into commuting options Commute Seattle supports.

None of this is pro-driver. Please don’t fall for it.

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