When My Parents Met Paid Parking

Recently, I was back home for the weekend visiting my parents in sunny Daytona Beach, Florida. From across the room, I heard my mom say to my dad, “Oh no, did you see they put those ugly parking meters at our beach ramp?”

She froze mid-sentence. Both of them looked over at me with this guilty look.

I smiled and said, “Yes. Those are ours.”

Of course, I couldn’t just leave it there. I launched into a whole diatribe about why those parking kiosks (not meters, Mom) were actually a good thing. I told them how they help keep their neighborhood beach ramp organized and make sure spaces stay available for people who actually want to use the beach.

I reminded my parents about my high school days, when all my friends would park their cars at that same beach ramp overnight to save room in our driveway. Sometimes those cars sat there for DAYS. And it wasn’t just us. That free lot had become a catch-all for anyone who needed somewhere to leave a vehicle indefinitely.

Paid parking fixed that. It brought order, fairness, and turnover. It made their beach ramp work the way it was supposed to. And more than that, it’s a sign that their city is growing in a healthy way - investing in systems that keep up with demand and generate revenue for improvements.

After my long, passionate speech about the benefits of paid parking, I wish I could say my parents had a light-bulb moment. That they smiled, nodded, and said something like, “Wow, we get it now! Paid parking is the future!”

But, no. My mom just looked at me and said, “I'm confused. I thought you worked in Marketing."

I laughed, but it stuck with me. If even my own parents, who have heard about my job for YEARS, still don’t really get it, how can we expect the average person to?

That’s our challenge in parking. We have to keep explaining the “why.” Because to most people, a kiosk is just a machine that takes money. But to us, it’s a way to keep cities flowing, businesses thriving, and communities connected.

So while my parents might never download a parking app or brag about curb management at dinner, I like to think that the next time they pull up to the beach and easily find a spot, they’ll have a tiny moment of appreciation. Even if they still don’t quite know what I do for a living.