Every time my parents fly out to visit me, it always starts off with me picking them up and taking them straight to Palo Alto so they can get some Rug shopping done. I guess Palo Alto is better than Miami, so that is what we do. This last time we were there, I parked in one of the 2 hour parking lots. About 90 minutes later I went to move the car so we wouldn’t get a ticket. As I pulled out of the parking lot, a spot just happened to open up right on the street, so I quickly pulled in. Painless and easy…so I thought.

When we came back to our car about 90 more minutes later, there was a ticket on my car for exceeding two hours, which didn’t make any sense to me since I had definitely moved the car. I thought maybe the guy had “chalked” my tire, and I just happened to park where it looked like my tires hadn’t moved, so I was going to fight it. Anyways, since we went to Miami, had our kitchen redone, and are always late checking mail, I kind of forgot about it until I opened mail this week. I decided to call and see if it was too late to argue (sure enough it was), but I really wanted to find out if I was in the wrong.

Apparently, in Palo Alto there are 4 color zones, and you can only park in a color zone for 2 hours per day! So, even if I moved my car to a new color zone, then tried to move it back a couple hours later, I would still get a ticket. Their systems don’t talk to each other, so even though the meter person may enter your License plate as being in the Purple zone, it doesn’t clear you from having parked in the Blue zone. So, when you go back to the Blue zone to park, it will think you have been there for 4 hours or however long it was since you first parked there. Of all the people I know who visit Palo Alto, I bet you none of them know about the Color Zones, especially since it is only written in the small text under the “2 hour only” parking warning. Needless to say, this is just a shady attempt to get money from the visitors of the city. Here is the website that explains it all…too bad they aren’t out passing these around town when you park.

From: Parking in Palo Alto

Color Zone Parking
The core business district of downtown Palo Alto is divided into four color-coded parking zones:

* Purple, Coral, Lime and Blue.
* Parking enforcement in effect Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
* Once the time limit expires in a given color zone you must move your vehicle out of that zone.
* Vehicles will be ticketed if they are reparked in the same color zone within the same enforcement day.

Example: You park in a 2-hour space on the street in the Lime Zone at noon. (You may repark within the Lime Zone only during your initial two hours should you need to.) However, if you leave before the 2 hours are up, you cannot repark later that same day. Your car must leave the Lime Zone by 2 p.m. You may park in any other Color Zone except the Lime Zone, which you are now leaving.