By Gabrielle Siegel

Don’t park on the wrong side of the street. Don’t park in front of your driveway. And definitely don’t underfeed the meter. Because they will find you, and when you return to your car, you will see a white slip of paper fluttering beneath one of your windshield wipers.

PARKAtlanta is a private company that was recruited a few years ago by the City of Atlanta and is overseen by the Department of Public Works. The PARKAtlanta website claims that its objective is to “improve convenience, access, fairness and service for City motorists, residents, businesses and visitors,” but to most individuals, they are simply an  inconvenience.

Lately, I’ve heard many classmates complaining about unfair parking tickets they have received. To attend a church play, one of my friends parked at a meter and only put enough money in for two and a half hours, thinking that’s how long it would last. Well, the play lasted three hours, and sure enough, there was a $25 ticket waiting for her on her windshield when she returned to her car.

Many seniors who dual enroll at Georgia State University complain about the difficulty of parking there because of limited space and strictly enforced regulations. The second the meter runs out, a PARKAtlanta employee is on the scene, ready to collect. And for high school and college students, every extra cent counts.

While I understand the money gained from parking tickets is used to better the city, the way PARKAtlanta acquires those funds is unfair to the citizens. Maybe it took a little longer to eat dinner than you thought it would; you underestimated by five or 10 minutes. Does that mean you should get a $50 fine? I’ve been with my dad when he has tried to pay one of the parking pay stations, which are similar to parking meters, and the machine didn’t work. The entire system is faulty.

I see no problem with making people pay if they cheat the system, but it’s only fair that a little leniency be given. The economy is bad these days; people are having a hard time even affording food, so it doesn’t seem right to make them pay for something as silly as parking too close to a stop sign.

Whenever I see one of the little white Hondas with PARKAtlanta in big blue letters on the side, my calm face turns to disgust. Improve convenience, access and fairness? Yeah, right. That is the opposite of what they do. So I would recommend keeping some extra change in your pocket.