Warning: Parking Meter Enforcement Has Increased

After 15 month hiatus, private firm puts more feet on the street

There are now more feet on the street looking for parking meter violators.

Chicago Parking Meters LLC, the private company that runs the city's parking meters -- and raised rates fourfold in some places -- has resumed writing tickets for violations. The company had stopped writing tickets in March 2009 to focus on correcting problems with the meter system.

Five more ticket-writers will be joining the 145 city and contract workers already issuing citations. The additional five will grow to 15 by the year's end.

Those five more ticket issuers may not sound like a lot, but the watchdog website TheExpiredMeter.com says those initial five extra enforcers can generate 240 tickets a day, 1,200 per week and about an extra 31,200 by the end of the year.

All of the money collected from parking violations will still go to the city, but extra enforcement is a positive for the company leasing the meters as well.  It's believed that more motorists will feel compelled to comply and feed the meter to avoid getting a ticket.

You've been warned.

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