parking wars 2.0

I hate paying to park. It is the number one reason I don't ever go downtown. I like what downtown has to offer but couple paying to park and lots of homeless people and I just end up always finding a reason not to go downtown for anything.

Probably the most egregious example of getting worked over for parking was when I worked for UCSD. I was charged $90 a month to park for work! Crazy! And then if I added on a motorcycle it was $40 a month! Wow... good thing I was making more than $20 a hour, but still...... $90 bucks a month just to park at work.

Being the crafty guy I am, one who enjoys subverting the system, I have a long history of battling the parking police and often getting away with it. Right or wrong, I still seem to find a perverse pleasure in doing it.

I love when I have a new vehicle and no plate. Hellooo free trips through the toll roads. No plate for them to photo!
In college I bought my first semesters parking hang tag for my car. After that I just made color copies of a friends and then cut and pasted it onto my old hanger; thus giving me the semblance on quick inspection of a current parking hang tag.

You get the idea.

Well for the community college class I start in two weeks I will be riding a motorcycle to class probably 90% of the time. A parking sticker for a motorcycle is $17 for a semester, so that seems a decent enough deal. The problem is that I have two motorcycles...... Now with a car you can just move your hang tag from vehicle to vehicle and it's not big deal. But with the motorcycle they want the sticker stuck to your fork leg. (the front of the motorcycle)

So what if I want to ride one of my other motorcycles? "They" say, but another motorcycle parking pass. But then I feel that is wrong as I'm being punished for riding a motorcycle when I should be getting a break. Especially in comparison to a car. So no way am I buying a second motorcycle parking sticker!

How am I getting around this? First option I'm trying, is I bought a flat magnet the same size with an adhesive size and stuck the permit to it. Now I can just slap my permit onto the gas tank of any motorcycle I ride. But if anyone looks closely they could see it is not permanently attached and just take the magnetic parking pass off. Dirty thieves. $4 in cost.

Second idea I have is to slide the parking sticker into a clear, hard plastic luggage tag holder. Then through the loop hole run a small combination cable lock. Like the kind used for luggage or camera bags and such. Then I have a hard, see through cover and a way to lock it to my bike. Downside to this is I then have to remember to take it off before riding away. And then I'm into it for $10.

Third idea? Just buy a second pass as they are only $17 and get over it. But it's the principle of the thing that keeps me from doing that!!! Probably cost the same amount of money as I'll spend on my projects circumventing it and with less to worry about, fiddling with a single pass.

Argh!!