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City of Savannah Makes Parking Tickets Easy To Pay

Everyone who lives in downtown Savannah and anyone who has ever had a business meeting downtown knows it is very difficult to find a parking space.

Although there are 3,000 parking meters in Savannah's Historic District with time limits ranging from 15 minutes to 10 hours (the cost per hour for parking on the meters ranges from $.30 per hour to $.75 per hour depending on the location of the meter), it's still very difficult to find a parking place and that suits the Savannah Parking Service "meter maids" just fine.

Long dubbed "parking nazis" by locals, the Savannah meter maids are one of the few drawbacks to living in Savannah's beautiful historic district.

So, why hasn't the city built more much needed parking garages? Well, you know how government is. All that red tape.

All we know is there's little incentive for the city to totally solve the parking problem in Savannah when it collects hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in parking fines.

But the City of Savannah isn't totally uncaring. They decided it might be too much trouble for you to come downtown a find a parking place to pay your ticket, so they've come up with a new way for you to "give them the money."

That's right, you guessed it: online payments via the world wide web.

According to the City of Savannah Government website:

Paying citations online is easy. All you need is your citation number which is located at the top of the citation and your credit card information. The process works like this:

• Click on the menu option "pay your parking citations online".
  
• A screen will appear which allows you to search for the citation.
  
• Enter the citation number which appears at the top of the citation.
  
• Enter the citation number which appears at the top of the citation.
  
• You will then have three options, you can proceed to the payment screen by clicking on the submit payment button, you can add the citation to your list of citations to be paid and search for another citation, or you can skip the citation and search for another citation.
  
• Once you have selected "submit payment", one of two screens will appear. If there are other unpaid citations for that tag number, a screen will appear listing any other outstanding citations for that tag number. (Note: this is not a guarantee that those are the only unpaid citations for that tag number. There may be instances where a citation is not posted.) You will be given the opportunity to add these citations to your list of citations to be paid. Otherwise, a screen will appear with all of the citations you have added to your list. You may remove any of the citations which you do not wish to pay at this time.
  
• When you are ready to complete your payment, click on the "enter credit card information" button.
  
• A screen will appear which will allow you to enter your payment information, including your credit card number. When you have entered all of the information, click on the complete payment button to complete the transaction.
  
• A screen will appear showing all of the citations you have paid and your total amount. Your total will also reflect a nominal service charge which covers the transaction cost to the City. This screen serves as your receipt and may be printed for your records.
  

So, city hall isn't totally uncaring! They care about receiving your money. They don't seem to care about providing enough parking.

This is an editorial