I live in Los Angeles county where automobiles are simply part of the culture. Los Angeles is expansive, a sprawling metropolis, and owning a car is essential and as common as owning a hair brush. There are many challenges to driving in L.A., including bumper to bumper traffic, navigating the city, one-way streets, gas prices (one of the highest in the country), road rage and most frustrating of all parking.
If you are fortunate enough to find a sacred parking space, you are probably paying a king's ransom. Most average no frill restaurants in L.A. offers valet parking in their parking lot. This is where I draw the line. If I am going to patronize your business, I feel I should expect to be offered free parking. I am happy to park my own car, but this is not the case in L.A. where you must pay to park.
I do enjoy eating out, but do not want to pay between $5.00 and $7.50 to park, therefore I find parking maybe a block or 2 away and just walk to my destination. It is good exercise after a heavy meal and that is money saved for another meal out or something else. Added up in a year, on an average I eat out twice a week, I have saved between $480.00 and $720.00 per year by not paying valet and parking lot costs.
By Cathy Heller from California
This page contains the following solutions.
If there are parking meters in your area and parking is not limited, try to pull into a parking space that still has some money left from the previous car.
Sam went to court and received a fine for parking his car in a "No Parking" zone.
