On a weekday, how hard is it to find parking in downtown Vancouver? Pretty hard. Now how hard is it to find free parking in downtown Vancouver? Almost impossible. So what makes people believe it's as easy as parking in the alleyway of a building only for commercial vehicles? You ask yourself how many people in this city that don't read signs posted everywhere. Where I sit in my office I have the privilege to watch an average of two cars get towed every day and you get your answer. A lot.

t's like the lottery in that alley. If you are willing to take the risk, you might just get away with it. Or maybe you'll just get a ticket. Mental note for all those still want to take that risk, a ticket cost you a lot more than parking the other side of the street which has a parkade that only cost you $4. And if you are really unlucky, you get your car towed. This is when you come back to your car to find it missing and start panicking. Now is it worth saving a few bucks for?

Although, I do enjoy watching people sprint towards the tow truck driver to stop them from towing their car, my favourite is still watching a reporter for CBC argue with the two truck driver about towing his truck in pouring rain. Come on, just pay the man and save yourself some embarrassment. I have to admit it was an entertaining half hour and the reporter still had to pay.

How fast does it take for your car to get towed you might ask. Only takes 15 minutes. That's 15 minutes starting from the police officer issuing the ticket and radioing in to the tow truck company to the tow truck comes speeding along, hooks up your car and takes off. It's such a money making area that I can look out the window for 2 minutes at any time of the day and see a tow truck drive through the alley. Moral of the story: read the signs around you and pay $4 to park because it's not worth getting towed for.