Does anyone else here pay to park at work?

I am frustrated. We get charged $35 a month just to park at work. That is $420 a year. Anybody else under a racket like this? I guesstimate they take in over 2,000,000 a year in parking fees. Not to mention the fines, event parking, etc. Big money!

Yep...I was paying $33 a month to park at a garage a couple blocks from work but when a spot opened up in the garage connected to our building I took it so now I pay $40 a month but I don't have to worry about walking in the rain or snow. The company does pay the other 50% of the parking so I guess I can't complain too bad but my last job didn't have a parking fee at all so it was a bit of an adjustment.

Only once. Had a job in downtown S.F. It wasn't too bad, as most days I could BART over. I just had to drive when I knew I'd be working late. Of course, BART wasn't free either.

zoebisch01 said:

That is $420 a year.

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Mmmm....$420....

IF I drive to work, I pay $15 a day. I work in a downtown office building, no street parking, and that's what the closest public garage charges.

In the year I've lived/worked here, I've only driven 3 times. Took the bus 3 times, and the rest of the time I ride my bike (and park it in the same garage for free )

When I lived in Chicago, the cheapest parking anywhere near my office was $22/day. Took the El, or rode my bike.

EDIT: zoebisch, are you saying your employer owns the lot, and charges employees to park in it? That is a racket!

When I lived in town, they had a good deal "ride for $5" which is a program to encourage using the transit authority. That was pretty good. Now though there are no buses where I live. They have a "commuter" lot which is much cheaper, but that is about 45 minutes walking distance (other side of campus). They have bus loops, but I am still looking at adding probably 20 minutes to my commute.

What brings this whole rant on is that I forgot my pass (used our van yesterday to come in as my car was in the shop) and got all the way in and realized I didn't have it. So a temp pass is $4. Screw that, I already pay $35 (actuallly it is $34 I looked again). The fine is $7 if I get caught. Tell me this aint a racket.

Sorry for the whole rant. Every year I think they recoup the raises they give through parking

Bike N Brew said:

IF I drive to work, I pay $15 a day. I work in a downtown office building, no street parking, and that's what the closest public garage charges.

In the year I've lived/worked here, I've only driven 3 times. Took the bus 3 times, and the rest of the time I ride my bike (and park it in the same garage for free )

When I lived in Chicago, the cheapest parking anywhere near my office was $22/day. Took the El, or rode my bike.

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That does suck. What has to be realized though is that my employer is the one charging me to park.

It's 90+ and humid, so I can't ride my bike now but once it cools down again I'm riding my bike to work again. I need the exercise, I love riding my bike and I love saving money on gas.

zoebisch01 said:

That does suck. What has to be realized though is that my employer is the one charging me to park.

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Hummm... so your paying to work there!

In high school we (as in my parents) paid ~$200 a year to park on campus. I laughed when I went to college and parking was only $75 a year and everyone was freaking out.

I pay around $550/year to park. I am a grad student and get paid crap to begin with but then I have to pay to park plus fees.

greenhornet said:

In high school we (as in my parents) paid ~$200 a year to park on campus.

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Was it a private school? I don't see how they could charge you for a public school, your taxes pay for the school.

Nope, public high school...

My daughter starts High School this year... I guess I better see what I will have to pay, but I am going to ***** about it.

Ha, my parents bitched too.....but after a few parking tickets they quickly paid.

It really did suck, I still had to walk 10min or so to class

I pay $290 a MONTH for Boston and that's down the street. My building is over $400 a month. Cost of doing business. best not to think about it.

jeffg said:

I pay $290 a MONTH for Boston and that's down the street. My building is over $400 a month. Cost of doing business. best not to think about it.

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Yeah, I guess so. I guess the part that I can't seem to get over mentally is that it's my employer charging lol.

Just venting . I keep trying not to think about it, but it's like that pebble in the shoe.

income tax deduction?

Sounds like the Company Store is alive and well!

zoebisch01 said:

Yeah, I guess so. I guess the part that I can't seem to get over mentally is that it's my employer charging lol.

Just venting . I keep trying not to think about it, but it's like that pebble in the shoe.

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Does your employer own the space?
The employer might be getting bent over by the property owner as well.

I've paid as much as $40 a day to park in Chicago. More typical is $12-$20. Most days, if I had to go downtown, I'd take the motorcycle and park at a meter which I'd never have to pay for because other driver's would park their car by my bike and plug the meter for me.

But back when the bike was new and shiny, I'd park in a garage that tucked me into a corner and only charged 5 bucks. Can't beat that.

free private underground parking here, and to boot, company vehicle, and gas card!

Does payment include security? Company here has large lot across from building with security at the entrance and roving patrols. Yesterday, guy who works for me calls and said his two drivers side tires were stolen. Last week a car was stolen. Broad daylight. Go figure, you get what you pay for.

I'm also a grad student, so parking is ~$500/year, but since I ride my bike they give me 24 days of parking each year free (for rain etc) as part of program to encourage biking to work.

Down side is that if I forget to put my parking meter up in the car the ticket is $40 each time.

If you do get a ticket, they will let you out of it. We borrowed my mother-in-law's car and put our pass in it and forgot to put it back in ours and got a ticket. I went to the office and was nice and friendly and they let me out of it. I asked and they implied they'll only let you get out of it once or twice a year. If you do it more frequently you are out of luck.

I don't have to pay for work but they have now put double yellow lines (no parking) all the way around the town for no other reason than to force you into pay zones and to generate fines.

There was no reason to do this apart from generating a "Tax"

My reaction to this.....stop going to town and spend my money else where!

I don't pay to park - one of the benefits of working in the burbs. I also work from home two or three days a week, so that saves me some gas

The last company I worked for gave us a $100 a month allowance that could be used for parking, bus pass, etc. I walked to work so I got to just keep the cash!

The company I work for is currently in the burbs (or more like industrial) but we're moving downtown. Downtown Tucson isn't that big but its still going to be $75 per month for parking. But, we're going to pay for the 50 employees parking. Probably 80% of the staff are admin types so they don't get paid that much but if we didn't pay we'd probably have a big turnover.

but really gets me is all the whining they're doing about having to walk from the parking structure to our building which is about 1.5 blocks. If you'd see some of em, they need to walk! That and complaining about bad weather (here?), safety (FBI and Secret Service is in this building!). People like to piss and moan about change. A couple "don't do elevators". We're on the 22-23rd floor. Never thought of that one when we made the decision. Get over your phobia I guess or move on.

Another great reason I like working at home. That and I hate rush hour or waking up before noon

With all due respect, I'd be weary of a company that made me pay just to be able to park there...

I don't have a parking space in our lot, since there's about 20 suites in the building I'm at and 4 front entrances, but parking a block back is gratis since it's a public street.

The advice above worked for me... If a place doesn't want you to park there, they OBVIOUSLY don't want you to spend money there. The streets in Alexandria are so damn crowded and small that I refuse to spend money there.

Whenever I have to visit a client site downtown, I pay out of pocket for parking, but save all my receipts and get reimbursed 100% each month.

I work construction in Las Vegas, Nevada. I just got transferred to a new job site in downtown(old) Las Vegas. I parked in the wrong construction parking lot and got my car towed. It cost me 180$ to get it out after work. When I got it out it had a 20$ parking ticket on the windshield. The next day I got a 35$ ticket for "blocking citizen access to a public bus stop".
I was so mad I could have killed somebody. Instead, I went home and got sloppy-ass drunk.

So in a sense, yes I pay for parking!

man, that's weak. i thought my $50.00 ticket for parking in front of my house was bad...damn street cleaning

Free underground parking with physical security and cameras. I've never heard of having to pay for parking at work.