Dear Editor,
Re: “Hospital parking unfair,” Letters, Jan. 16.
Hospital parking has become an unnecessarily stressful and expensive experience for patients at all the hospitals.
Anyone who has used the hospital lots while attending a procedure, test or appointment immediately has to play a guessing game as to how much pay parking to buy before they have even walked through the door of the hospital.
Inevitably, these appointments or treatments can run long or are delayed with the patient waiting and not wanting to leave to pay for more parking in case his or her name is called next, or more to the point is physically limited by the procedures to get out to pay for more parking.
How many patients per day get back to their cars to find that the guy who constantly patrols the lot with his ticket machine in hand has placed a significantly expensive fine on their car? Impark has turned into “hospital parking lot vultures,” hovering around the lot constantly, waiting for the parking on vehicles to expire.
There is a really easy solution to this. Put the guy that is patrolling the lot handing out tickets into a booth and you pay as you exit the lot for the time you have been there. Sound familiar? Or, like the airport or the Oval, install machines that read your ticket when you leave and tell you what you owe for the time you have been there.
I am sure Impark is in no hurry to do either because they make way more money handing out significant fines than either of the above suggestions.
It is time the city stepped in and forced the issue. Impark does not own this property. This is not rocket science, it is simple common sense.
Change the machinery so that it is patient-friendly, the same as
the airport or Oval, you pay for the actual time you use, or put the “ticket vulture” into a booth, and you pay as you leave. Patient stress reduced, problem solved.
Roidon Lamb
RICHMOND
