Meter Maids in Japan

A few of my friends in Japan have coined a cute little nick name for these guys, Green Goblins. This in large part comes from them always wearing green, and also of course never really being a pleasant site to see.

These are the people who ticket your bikes and cars and are always prepared to tow them (or impound them). 

In many places, you are allowed to park your car for a maximum of 30 minutes before they come and tow or boot it(if you are not allowed to park there or there is a no bicycles sign, they can ticket or possibly tow your immediately...upon spotting you). This is a rough 30 minutes, because you see, the 30 minutes starts from when they catch you. Traditionally, they would come by with chalk and would make an outlining of your car on the pavement, or possibly just its wheels, with perhaps a time stamp as well (also in chalk). In 30 minutes time when they return to check on your car, if it has moved then they don't need to worry, but if it hasn't, that is when it get a ticket or a boot. 

Now an easy way to over come this would be to make sure every 30 minutes or so you move your car around. But that can also be just too much of a hassle for people. 

This chalk method also works for people and bikes as well. Yeah. People. I was told that they will outline people speaking at like a public square (who have not previously organized with the park or area to be able to speak there at an allotted time). For example, if a politician was to be speaking at a certain venue at a certain time, I am certain it would be most acceptable; however lower politicians and activists will do demonstrations at parks and they have a 30 minute time allowance before they too get 'towed'. 

This chalk method might be a bit dated as they seem to have little electronic gadgets now where you can probably just plug the information in, though these gadgets could be purely for ticketing as opposed to timing vehicles. Or perhaps the chalk method is more meant for a scenario where a person who was not the original tagger to be able to determine how long a vehicle has been parked in a certain location. Or maybe they just don't trouble themselves with chalking cars any more since they are rarely parked in locations where chalk would be necessary for long (really it is just that people never drive them since public transportation is so fantastic here). They are more concerned with bicycles and motorbikes, though that could just be because I live in a larger city, where there is a great number of bicycles and their riders.

So what happens if you car gets a boot or your bike get impounded? Well you have to either call the organization to get the boot removed and pay the fine, or go and retrieve your bike (and also pay the money). Apparently it is a pain in the butt if your bike get impounded because you have to walk to the impound on foot and it is never near any sort of station. You could also take a taxi to got get it as well, but depending on the location and the nearest taxi services, that could be quite expensive. I was told in a joking manner that the walk is supposed to be a sort of penance for your misdeed and also to make you reconsider doing it again (as you wouldn't want to walk there again). In addition to where ever it would be that you have to pick up your bike, you would then have to ride it all the way back to your place, which could again be quite far if the impound is on the outskirts of the city. 

But what if you get there just in time? As in they are writing the ticket and you arrive?

I was actually able to witness this event just this weekend. Quite unlike the United States, if you arrive there and make it clear that it is you car, they will just walk away and there is no penalty. No ticket. No boot. Nothing. The man I saw this weekend just went up and unlocked his door and opened it. No words were said at all. These meter maids just packed up their little instruments and walked away. The man then went back inside the store once their backs were turned and they were far enough away. Hah!
To the left is them ticketing the car and, if you can see it, in the one on the right there is a man in the car now and the meter maids have dispersed. Here you can see the no parking sign, so this person does not have a 30 minute window, he just gets a ticket if caught.