I had the misfortune to have the need of the Prince George hospital services. I have no complaints with the medical services offered, in fact, I find the people do an exemplary job. My complaint is with the parking system. It seems designed to guarantee there will be fines (extra profit) on a daily basis. I had an appointment in the afternoon and had been informed it would be no more than an hour, so upon arriving and realizing there may be unexplained delays I purchased a parking ticket for double the expected times.
Then, through no fault of mine, there were extra delays of approximately one hour during which I was unable to leave and "feed" the parking meter, upon my return to my vehicle I found there was a ticket issued for $22.40 if paid within three days, or, $33.60 thereafter.
I was informed there is an option to pay by phone in the event of delay. They informed me "there a signs all over", and it is my responsibility to read them. So I took another trip to the parking lot and took some pictures of the parking signs and meters, nowhere is there any reference to paying by phone. I again called the company in Vancouver and was able to get them to drop the charge to $20, which I still think is unacceptable considering the circumstances. As the Prince George council is considering reinstalling parking meters in the downtown, this would be a wonderful opportunity to offer to police this system, and to keep the monies collected in town instead of adding to the riches of a business in Vancouver.
While on vacation in Europe last year, I found the systems to be much more accommodating and fair. They have an automated system, whereby on entry to the parking lot, a machine dispenses a ticket, and upon exit, the time is calculated and the monies owed dispensed into the machine, also there is accommodation for electronic payments in the event of not having cash. This "eliminates" the possibility of fines!
Having a system such as this would require very little policing. An employee of the hospital or the city could run this system and the profits would be kept in Prince George.
Peter Yates
Prince George
