The city of Richmond installed its first parking meters in 1939 as a potential solution for congestion in shopping districts, with a two-hour limit per space to promote turnover.
But nearly three decades after the first coin-operated meter was installed, the city struggled to persuade motorists with pockets full of nickels to vacate their spaces.
In March 1966, the city finally threw down the gauntlet, imposing an aggressive crackdown on the nuisance of “meter feeders” — drivers who occupied a single space all day by continually feeding change into the meters, despite the two-hour legal limit.
“Wielding a double-edged sword of education and enforcement, traffic engineering personnel, police and businessmen will wage an intensive, 30-day campaign to recover more than 700 strongholds now occupied by the enemy in the city’s retail, financial and government districts,” read an article in the March 7, 1966, Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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In a four-week campaign from March 7 to April 2, 1966, police aggressively pursued meter feeders, which included a more active ticketing campaign and reconnaissance efforts to record the license plate numbers of repeat offenders. During the monthlong effort, police issued 350 tickets for parking violations in the city. Among those targeted were lawyers, mechanics, reporters, engineers and a sexton from a local church…