Windsor health centre loosens ticket policy
Visitors can once again ‘pay it forward’ by giving unexpired receipts to others
Generous patients at a central Windsor medical centre can once again help their fellow citizens park for free.
The old pay-and-display system, which allowed people to give away their partly used stubs so strangers could park for free, was back in force Monday at the Windsor Health Centre. The backtrack comes after some considerable outrage over the centre owners removing the system that allowed parkers to pay it forward.
“We gave it some time and we spoke to our tenants,” said Nadia Hindi, property manager for the centre at Howard Avenue and Tecumseh Road. “They said why don’t we just go back to the old system? We’re just doing our best to take care of the people that use our facility, to address everybody’s concerns, and to keep our patients and tenants happy.”
When drivers paid to park under the original system, the machines just spit out a stub stating how much time had been paid for. The cost was $3 for two hours. If people were finished in the centre before their time ran out, they often passed the stub along to some other lucky driver. That was the system for 10 years.
It changed about five weeks ago when THMC Windsor Inc., the company that bought the building on Oct. 1, had new machines installed requiring drivers to type in their licence plate numbers. The licence plate numbers appeared on the stubs. This prevented people from paying their tickets forward because if the licence plate number on the stub didn’t match the one on the car, drivers would be facing a ticket of up to $28.
Hindi has said the change was an attempt to improve parking. A common complaint was that people would go over the two-hour time limit and have to run out in the middle of a medical appointment to feed the machine more money. Hindi said the company extended the time to four hours for $3, but added the licence plate requirement so people couldn’t pass on their stubs.
“We were advised that’s the way to go, that’s the system to go to with the technology that’s being used by other cities,” she said.
The move was not popular. Many people were upset that they couldn’t pass on their stubs. Seniors had trouble using the new machines despite the company erecting signage and having staff in the parking lot to help.
“Navigating the system was one of the reasons we changed back,” said Hindi. “We want to continue to have our patients and our tenants happy on our site. I hope this will help everybody.”
The company received several complaints from both seniors who couldn’t figure out the new machines and people angry they could no longer give away their stubs. Many people saw it as a money grab.
“I was disappointed because if you have to come back to the same doctor more than once, it gets to be quite expensive,” Darlene Bennett said Monday after a stranger handed her a partly used stub. “As an owner I suppose there is expense. But for a lot of people on a low income, it’s difficult. It’s very difficult.”
Doug Jones gave Bennett his stub. He actually stood around the parking lot waiting for someone to show up so he could pass it on. Jones was happy the company put the old system back into place.
“I think it’s good on their part, then everything will calm down and hopefully they’ll just leave it alone,” he said. “I used to come here quite a bit because I had a urologist I had to see all the time, so people would give me one. If I was here and I had one I would give it to somebody else. You see that all the time.”
I think it’s good on their part, then everything will calm down and hopefully they’ll just leave it alone.