Dear Editor,
The Langley Memorial Hospital parking meters are an utter disgrace.
Prospective patients often arrive with absolutely no idea of the length of time that the hospital staff will take to process them.
Emergency patients are in the same leaky boat, but often without adequate change to fill the money-devouring monsters whose thirst must be satiated to fill their exorbitant appetites.
Further to this, when the sun is shining in the southeastern sky, it is extremely difficult to read the screen that coaches you through the procedures of parking your vehicle. Surely a screen of some description could be erected to correct this difficulty.
Many older patients, including myself, I note, have difficulty in meeting the demands of the money-grubbing meters, particularly when loonies drop with a clunk into the return box. I have fed no less than five legitimate coins into the meter before it acknowledged it received the correct amount and deposited a receipt in exchange.
What a retrograde step it was when these meters were installed. Prior to this, a drive-through lane handed you your time of parking, and when finished, an attendant collected what you owed: simple, straightforward, and sensible, but with the attendant’s salary to pay.
I would have gladly paid a fee to cover this cost to get rid of the mechanical monsters which now complicate a visit to the hospital.
Mike Harvey, Langley