Parking Equipment Freezes after Snow

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Updated: 6:49 PM Feb 8, 2010

The equipment used to distribute tickets to drivers using parking garages in downtown Charlottesville froze up from the weekend's heavy snow and low temperatures. Parking in the garages is no longer free, so attendants are hand-writing tickets to customers.

Posted: 5:31 PM Feb 8, 2010
Reporter: Cheryn Stone
Email Address: cheryn.stone@newsplex.com

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Drivers heading into a parking garage on East Market Street in Charlottesville are now greeted by an attendant.

Instead of pushing the button to grab a ticket, an attendant writes you one instead. Drivers pulling into the lot found the equipment isn't working.

"When we went to restart our equipment after the weekend, it was frozen, so we're waiting for it to warm up," said Bob Stroh of the Downtown Business Association.

"The on-street parking has really opened up, and that's a lot of spaces that we could not have gotten to if the public had not gotten their cars off the street," Stroh said.

About 500 drivers took advantage.

"We're open again for charge," Stroh said. "There is a charge today."

For now, they'll have to charge the old-fashioned way -- a written ticket to drivers.

"So, we don't know when our equipment is going to work, but our manual equipment operators are doing great. So we're looking forward to them greeting people at the entrance. It sounds almost hospitable doesn't it?" Stroh said, laughing.