Time allowed to exit after paying for parking ?

green123

just wondering does anyone know how long you are allowed after you pay for parking to reach the exit ?

i supppose it varies in different carparks

might be a bit of a loophole to get some free parking time

MrPudding

green123 wrote: »

just wondering does anyone know how long you are allowed after you pay for parking to reach the exit ?

i supppose it varies in different carparks

might be a bit of a loophole to get some free parking time

I think it is 10 or 15 minutes. The guys that run the carparks also have brains.

MrP

seamus

Depends on the carpark. Ones where the paystations are miles from the vehicles, such as St. Stephen's green, probably give you 30 minutes. In the airport I'd imagine it's at least 30 minutes. In places like Dundrum, it's probably more like 10 or 15.

green123

i still think this is a great plan/scam.
and now that we are in a recession, this thread might get more interest.

Trampas

so how are you going to do it

since most places you pay by the hour.

are you going to run back to your car to pay before the hour is up and then run back to pick up the sausages and run back again inside that 20 mins?

Rawr

I used to work in the car parks a few years back. If I remember right, the system would give you 12 minutes to get out. That usually seemed to be plenty of time, since the pay stations were placed where you would usually enter the car park (at least at the one's I've worked.)

However if the time elapsed, and the system wouldn't let someone out for the sake of say, 3-4 minutes, we'd usually just raise the barrier manually.

green123

Trampas wrote: »

so how are you going to do it

since most places you pay by the hour.

are you going to run back to your car to pay before the hour is up and then run back to pick up the sausages and run back again inside that 20 mins?

yep,
could be very useful at the airport in the short term carpark, if you were just waiting to collect somebody and they were slightly delayed

Genghis

One time using a "Quick Park" car-park I got back to the meter and found I was just over 1 hour, and hence charged for 2. I paid my ticket and decided that, since I was now 'paid up' for another 58 minutes, I wouldn't move the car as planned and walked to my next destination, returning about 40 mins later, i.e. well inside the time I'd paid up to.

Trying to exit the car-park, I found my card to have expired and the grumpy old bugger in the office made me come back up to him, hand in the ticket, have a new one issued to me and insisted I pay for a minimum hour so that I could then exit on the new card.

I reckon that is the case with any automated car park.

Davy

Has happened me before where i paid but by the time got to the car and to the barrier wouldnt go up because to much time had elapsed. The car park was so busy the 15mins had elapsed in the queue. Im sure each car park measures the time and sets accordingly.

Rawr

Davy wrote: »

Has happened me before where i paid but by the time got to the car and to the barrier wouldnt go up because to much time had elapsed. The car park was so busy the 15mins had elapsed in the queue. Im sure each car park measures the time and sets accordingly.

If it were possible to do on our old systems we would have done it back then. Especially during a heavy rush, we'd prefer to get people going, instead of holding them up for the sake of 5 minutes. It was easier for all involved.

Since we couldn't change the exit timer, we'd usually have one of us up at the barrier, and if a car got caught by the timer, we'd quickly check the exit time on the ticket (printed when you pay). If the time wasn't too long ago, we'd just let that person out manually.

I don't know if that is done anymore

Rawr

Genghis wrote: »

One time using a "Quick Park" car-park I got back to the meter and found I was just over 1 hour, and hence charged for 2. I paid my ticket and decided that, since I was now 'paid up' for another 58 minutes, I wouldn't move the car as planned and walked to my next destination, returning about 40 mins later, i.e. well inside the time I'd paid up to.

Trying to exit the car-park, I found my card to have expired and the grumpy old bugger in the office made me come back up to him, hand in the ticket, have a new one issued to me and insisted I pay for a minimum hour so that I could then exit on the new card.

I reckon that is the case with any automated car park.

It pretty much is, a lot of these car park systems will just count your tariff (and time) in full hours....(with the exception of the escape time, which is usually 10 -15 minutes.)

When you pay for the parking, the system considers your parking complete and then the escape timer begins to countdown.

If you think that you are into your next hour, don't pay for your parking yet. Instead, just put the ticket into the pay station and then see on the display, the tariff you are going to be charged. If you have run into the next hour, and you feel that you'd like to use that hour, just press the Cancel button on the pay station and get your ticket back. Then pay when you come back.

I think that'll work on most systems out there.

Lobelia Overhill

Cork airport used to give you something like 30 minutes - well that's what it felt like! I went there one time and when I got back to the car it wouldn't start, which was nothing out of the ordinary for that car, then when I finally got going there was a queue at the exit. I was panicking like mad, but got through no probs.

Genghis

Rawr wrote: »

It pretty much is, a lot of these car park systems will just count your tariff (and time) in full hours....(with the exception of the escape time, which is usually 10 -15 minutes.)

When you pay for the parking, the system considers your parking complete and then the escape timer begins to countdown.

If you think that you are into your next hour, don't pay for your parking yet. Instead, just put the ticket into the pay station and then see on the display, the tariff you are going to be charged. If you have run into the next hour, and you feel that you'd like to use that hour, just press the Cancel button on the pay station and get your ticket back. Then pay when you come back.

I think that'll work on most systems out there.

Yes, but thats a work-around. A fairer set up would be to allow you use the time you have actually paid for, and then start the exit time.

amtc

Apparently lots of people do this (going through the Arnotts carpark) if trying to go Southside from O'Connell St.

Rawr

Genghis wrote: »

Yes, but thats a work-around. A fairer set up would be to allow you use the time you have actually paid for, and then start the exit time.

Ideally yea, it would be better if the escape timer would count down until the end of your hour. However that's not easy to implement for every case. If the escape timer was going strictly by the hour, and then say you have paid for 1 hour's parking. You may not have enough time to get out before the exit barrier stops you and demands you pay for the next hour.

The whole point of the escape timer counting from the moment of payment, is that the system believes that you are about to leave, which is almost always the case. Since drivers will return at different times, regardless of where in the hour they are, the escape timer needs to be a set amount of time.