Goodbye Parking Meters

Disabled parking meters

If you’re used to parking your car in the lot outside of Murky Coffee all day, it’s time to find a new parking spot.

Arlington has been replacing parking meters with “Pay and Display” meters.  These new boxes take the old coins (which was my last refuge for all my spare change) and also accept dollar bills and credit cards.  So running out of change is no longer a good excuse.

After a successful test run in other locations (outside the shops at Clarendon was one) they are expanding the program to other areas.  Yesterday, they modified the large parking lot that runs from St. Charles Church to Murky Coffee.

Here is the catch: since a Pay and Display machine can only be one type, they have apparently chosen 4-hour parking (Red) as the only parking available outside.  So, once you spend the morning at Murky, it’s time to move on to something else.  Which might be a good idea anyway.

Also, if you do park at a lot of meters in Arlington, you might want to consider picking up one of these cool toys.  They cost $20.00, but have unlimited refills and – the best part – they only charge for exactly the time you use it.

Jonathan Baker

came to DC, left for San Francisco, and then realized he couldn’t live without a daily fix of politics and came back. When not traveling to crazy locations, he speaks and writes for a major software house in CA.

2 thoughts on “Goodbye Parking Meters

  1. now if they would just do something about all of the illegal parkers from the church. never see any tickets on their cars.