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American vs. European Parking Enforcement Objects: Chalk Stick vs. Parking Disc

The policed and the self-policed

By Rain Noe - February 8, 2023

in Object Culture

Hey Europeans! Check this American thing out. This is a chalk stick.

In U.S. cities, when you park in a limited-time slot—let's say it's a two-hour limit--parking enforcement officers use the stick to mark your tires with chalk. Then they come back in two hours, and any car they see that has chalk on the tires gets a ticket. They've been doing this at least since the 1940s.

Hey Americans! Check this European thing out. This is a parking disc. (I mean it's not shaped like a disc, but there are discs inside.)

In European cities, when you park in a limited-time slot, you're meant to set your arrival time (generally rounded up to the next half hour) on this parking disc that you display on the dashboard. These parking discs aren't given out, it's your responsibility to buy one (you can get a cheap paper one for less than a Euro at a gas station). A parking enforcement officers checks the discs, does the math and anyone who stayed too late gets a ticket. They've been using these since the '50s.

Sometimes companies give these out for free with advertising on the back, like they do with tissue packages in Japan. And this plastic variant does double duty: It also works as an ice scraper, and still costs just €2.

Of course, if you want to spend more, you can. Automatic parking discs exist, like this one for €22.90 (USD $25). It sticks to the inside of your windshield and contains an accelerometer. It automatically detects when your car has stopped moving, then displays the arrival time.

If you want something a little more designey, there's this one by Danish industrial designer Jacob Jensen, which works the same way as the one above but will set you back about €50 (USD $54).

So will these ever cross the pond? Doubtful. While U.S. courts have been going back and forth about whether chalking tires is legal or not, I think we all know you can't trust us Americans to honestly set our own times—or even to be bothered with it in the first place. What I wouldn't give to be proven wrong.

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Douglas Bowker

a year ago

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In my experience, the cities that actually care about parking times just install meters, or these days, a kiosk to cover the whole block. My city has meters with the option of using an app. The app method is probably a loss for the city because it's so much easier to add tge max time because: no quarters! And it sends you a reminder as the time nears its end. On the other hand apps or kiosks save cities money because: no need to collect and process all those quarters. I occasionally see areas with "1 hour parking" signs and no meters, but those streets are the ones you're unlikely to get a ticket for. Probably because you (traffic cop) have to keep track of multiple times and vehicles. Way too much work in most cases.

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Ryan Hamilton

a year ago

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I just moved back from Denmark, where I lived for 2 years. I love this system, though I have to confess I sometimes forgot to set the manual one. Parking tickets are really expensive there though, so you are less likely to forget after getting one of those!

One of our cars had an automatic digital one like you’ve shown, which stopped the time when you stop the car - that was very helpful. Would love to see this system in the US.

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