Roving Trucks

It's that time of day again. You know, when those wonderful white pickups emblazoned with the Illinois "I" are about. Ah yes, these trucks grace us with their ubiquitous presence and the world is a better place for them.

I am, of course, referring to campus parking. Hooray. They're around to enforce meters, parking zones, and everything else parking. I can see the reason for having and enforcing meters that are right on campus, aka right next to the quads: gotta turn those spots over. But when the meters are a good 15 minute walk away from central campus and there are a dozen empty spaces, it's a different story. I mean come on, you're just enjoying yourself at that point.

Yep. I've gotten my share of tickets like anyone else. I can deal with, and sometimes pay, the main campus meters for the reasons I've already mentioned. But getting ones at the tennis courts when there are a shitton of open spaces just irks me. There is one ticket that pisses me off more than others though. I was playing tennis and saw a parking truck getting close. So I head out to throw some change in the meter, the "parking officer" stops, I tell him I'm feeding the meter, and he continues along. Hoo-rah. Just avoided a ticket. Psych. Three months later I get a ticket in the mail, sent to my home address. And for some extra salt in that wound, since I didn't pay it in 72 hours, the fine's increased.

Yeah, yeah. There's a simple solution: pay the meter. To this I say no. Both Champaign and UI make too much from parking. I'm keeping my quarters.