Parking in a city can be expensive. While drivers in cities like Cleveland or Dallas can occasionally find low-cost parking, residents of cities like New York and Chicago aren’t so lucky. According to Car and Driver in 2019, off-street parking in New York City can cost almost $40 for just two hours of parking, with Chicago coming in second at just over $21 for two hours.
A user on TikTok recently demonstrated just how expensive parking in a city can get in a video with over 192,000 views.
In the clip, which was posted Monday, TikTok user @akewlname shows himself entering a parking pass into a machine that he says he’s had since May 3, or for 54 days. When the machine shows his total, it reveals that someone with the ticket would have to pay $8,175.
In the caption, the TikToker writes, “Chicago downtown parking be like…”
@akewlname Chicago downtown parking be like…
♬ original sound – nattylo
If the TikToker has truly had the ticket for 54 days, that would equal just over $150 per day. Rounding up the first and last day to 24 hours, this means that the parking cost is around $6 per hour of parking.
That said, it’s very possible that the TikToker simply pulled the ticket for this test and that it is not attached to an actual car—thus, it’s unclear if the TikToker has any intention of resolving this issue. If he chose to, it would make more financial sense to simply pay the lost ticket fee, which the TikToker claims in comments is $200.
In the comments section, users expressed surprise at the high cost, with several offering ways to get around it.
“Get a giant magnet to set off the sensor and get a ticket from that day,” suggested a user.
Some suggestions were a little more drastic.
“You can just keep the car at that point. I paid $200 for it. Title will be in the glovebox,” joked another.
“Keep it until the number becomes negative,” added an additional user.
One user claimed they performed a similar stunt.
“I have a still valid airport parking ticket I pulled on my first day of work in 2008. it crashes the computer when it tries to calculate it lol,” stated a commenter. “Iirc its somewhere in the neighborhood of $32,000 and climbing currently.”
The Daily Dot reached out to @akewlname via TikTok comment.
