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By Jeff Sherman OnMilwaukee.com Staff Writer E-mail author | Author bio More articles by Jeff Sherman

Published April 17, 2009 at 7:15 a.m.

Tags: parking, downtown, free, meters, luke, coins, tickets, commute, meter maids

Read the signs, people! You don't have to plug the meters on Saturday or Sunday in Downtown Milwaukee.

I posted a similar blog two years ago, but it's time for a reminder.

The parking signs (see above) may not be the most straightforward signs in the world, but if you ignore the top portion (the "Monday through Friday" language) you will notice that the bottom portion does not contain the word "meter."

For example, a two-hour sign says, "2 HOUR PARKING 8:00 AM TO 6:00 PM SATURDAY." The top of this same sign reads, "2 HOUR METER PARKING 8:00 AM TO 6:00 PM MONDAY THRU FRIDAY."

This means that you don't have to plug the meters on Saturdays. But if you park at a single street spot for more than two hours you might get a ticket. And, a friendly reminder, Sundays are always free at all metered spots in the city.

The City tells me that the new Luke meters (the programmable ones) won't even accept your money on the weekends. This is good.

Says Cindy Angelos at the City, "The Luke multi-space meters provide an advantage to those persons who park their vehicles on-street in the morning before the legislated time when they are required to pay. Most meters downtown go into effect at 8 a.m. There are workers who park their vehicles as early as 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. or anytime before 8 a.m. By having this pre-pay feature, a person can insert his/her $1.50 per hour in the meter at anytime before 8am, including after business hours the day or Friday before. However, the money isn't "used" until 8 a.m. when the amount he/she inserts begins to tick down. This is a distinct advantage for those who arrive early and don't have to leave their office/gym/ restaurant/church to plug a meter at 8 a.m.. The Luke meters, however, are unable to be programmed to only offer this service at say 6 a.m. Either they are programmed to allow pre-payment or they are not. If DPW turned off this feature, no one would be able to pre-pay, causing many early-bird workers a great inconvenience"

But, I still see way too many people plugging the traditional meters on Saturdays and Sundays. Don't. "The single space meters will accept coin on Saturdays and Sundays in the Downtown, even though people don't have to put money in," Cecilia Gilbert, permit and communications manager told me.

Gilbert reinforced what I'm telling you, "The most important message is that people need to read the signage where they park," she added.

Honeslty, I just want our Downtown to be as user friendly as possible. So consider this a friendly outreach message. Happy parkers = happy visitors and residents.

You're welcome.

8 comments about this article. Post a comment / write a review.

Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by older/wiser on April 21, 2009 at 8:34 a.m. (report)

I had to think about this sign on a recent Saturday afternoon. Attending a matinee performance at the Marcus Center. We took our chance that we would not get a ticket despite the fact that arriving early for the performance put us OVER our two hour free parking time limit. We were spared a ticket, but of course moved our car out of the area to find a place to enjoy dinner. It would have been nicer to be able to walk to a restaurant near the Center and not have to worry about the two hour parking limit. What do visitors to our city think about this somewhat confusing parking situation? I agree that the wording on many meters does not match the regulations on the posted signs.

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Posted by newguy on April 18, 2009 at 12:26 p.m. (report)

wow! That last comment had a link to one of the most socialistic articles I have ever read! Stating that eliminating and/or charging higher fees for parking will discourage people to drive to their locations, thereby improving the areas, by not "pushing out other businesses". Yes, lets eliminate the parking lane and make our streets a little tighter (particularly on the treacherously navigated east side) to add more business. Do you ever think that having plenty of free parking would be an advantage to a business by bringing in new customers? I am a construction worker, and I am tired of not being able to find parking in the buildings that I work on, particularly downtown. "Yes, we want to improve downtown. Yes, we know that you have to bring a lot of tools and power equipment into here. But could you please park 4 blocks away, where there is a chance that your van will get vandalized, and any remaining tools you might have in there might get stolen? And since you are only allowed 2 hour parking, you will have to stop what you are doing every 2 hours to move your vehicle, and feed another meter. Thanks! " Or I suppose I could load all my tools onto my bike or drag them onto a bus. THAT would make the difference and help create a better downtown!

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Posted by golfbowler on April 18, 2009 at 12:08 p.m. (report)

I was downtown two weeks ago near the Midwest Express Center. We noticed that exact sign, walked to the meter, the meter indicated no payment was due until Monday at 8:00 A.M. Nothing else. Upon returning to our car 2 hours and 10 minutes later, almost the whole block was getting a ticket. Nice way to mislead the public. Meter says one thing, sign says another. A message on the meter should also say "2 HOUR TIME LIMIT STILL ENFORCED"

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Posted by Mr.Woland on April 17, 2009 at 1:07 p.m. (report)

The broader point that needs to be made here is that not charging for downtown parking is an enormous giveaway by the city to non-city residents, and an extraordinarily wasteful use of finite resources. I can assure you that no one's plans on whether to visit the Third Ward turn on whether or not the meter needs to be fed, so we're just giving to people for free something that is very much not free: http://www.raisethehammer.org/index.asp?id=072

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Posted by Sherman on April 17, 2009 at 10:10 a.m. (report)

This does apply in the entire designated Downtown area. If you are unsure, like the blog states, simply read the sign(s) carefully.

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Show me the other 3 Talkbacks

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