Feed the meter or take your chances? A gambler's guide to weekend parking

It's Sunday. You've just parked your car at a meter. There's no parking enforcement officer in sight.

To pay, or not to pay.

You might even wonder, is anyone even checking these meters? Am I being a sucker on Sundays?

If you've ever been tempted to gamble on a ticket, park yourself here for a minute and read on. No loose change required.

CBC News decided to survey several municipalities about their meter-reading personnel power over weekends. In some cases, we filed Freedom of Information requests.

But even at that, one city downright refused to tell us, citing "trade secrets."

We found out your chances of getting a ticket on a weekend can drop substantially depending where you are; by 27 per cent in Vancouver on Saturday and Sunday, 33 per cent in White Rock on Sunday, and a whopping 56 per cent in New Westminster.

Parkins by name, Parkin' by nature

First up, the City of Burnaby.

Why? Because its parking boss has a near-perfect name.

"You would be surprised how many people say "Parkings", says John Parkins, supervisor of parking enforcement for the City of Burnaby.

Until the end of August, Burnaby used to be easy street for meter cheaters.

Sure, there are parking meters mainly along the south Burnaby-Kingsway corridor and around some SkyTrain stations, but the municipality had virtually no one checking them regularly.

"Let's put it this way, I wouldn't say it was necessarily a priority," says Parkins. "We just didn't have the manpower."

Now, Burnaby isn't messing around. It filled a vacant full-time meter reader position a few weeks ago.

So, is the honeymoon over for scofflaws?

"If that's the way you want to look at it, yes it is," says Parkins.

But there could be a bit of bluster to that bravado.

Burnaby's new lone enforcer doesn't work on statutory holidays, or patrol past 6 p.m. (or 4:30 p.m. if on an early shift) even though the meters demand to be fed every day until 8 p.m.

So for at least two hours every night, Burnaby's parking meter ramparts are undefended.

A measure of the meters

Other municipalities are easy marks for parking penny pinchers.

Weekends are your friends in at least four cities, where enforcement drops off, especially on Sundays.

The city of Vancouver tells us there's an average of 40 parking enforcement officers working mid-week — on Wednesday — dipping to 29 on a Sunday.

By contrast, in tiny White Rock, the number of meter readers varies from season to season — but in winter, three work on Wednesdays, down to two on Sundays.

In New Westminster, there's an average of four checkers on the streets on Wednesday, and one or two on Sunday.

In Surrey, there's only a slight dip, with an average of about six parking enforcers  working mid-week compared to five on weekends.

City of North Vancouver: a 'trade secret'

As for the City of North Vancouver, well, we wish we could tell you if or when their weekend parking patrols drop off.

After all, they've got meters all around Lions Gate hospital and near Lonsdale Quay.

But Jennifer Borland, the city's privacy coordinator, refused to give us a Wednesday-to-Sunday comparison, citing "trade secrets," the disclosure of which, among other things, "would result in harm or improper benefit."

In Burnaby, meters pay for more meters 

So where does the revenue from parking meters go?

Vancouver has over 10,000 meters, far more than all other municipalities combined. According to the city's 2018 budget projections, those meters will rake in almost $56.5 million this year, more than $1 million a week.

That's four per cent of Vancouver's total revenues.

The city says the cash goes into general revenue, paying for everything from park upkeep to community centres. So not paying that meter could cut ice time for little Alex or see Granny lose her aquafit class.

Feeling guilty yet?

At the other end of the scale, in Burnaby, parking meter revenue goes to pay for, well, more parking meters.

"The meter shop gets to keep it all the proceeds ... they use that funding for expansion of metered areas, repairs on meters, etc.," says Burnaby's Parkins. "That's about it."

'It's a gamble,' says Parkins

Parkins will retire after 34 years of public service in November. As he prepares to park his parking career, he has a simple, obvious message for anyone looking to take advantage of any weakness in weekend meter enforcement: Pay your money — or take your chances on a ticket.

"It's a gamble," says Parkins. "Do you want to spend that 40 bucks on nothing … or maybe like two to three dollars in the meter?"

At the very least, now you know the odds. 

With files from Paisley Woodward