Parking tickets

The first time I saw one of these women, sitting with one foot on the ground and the other on her bycyle pedal, wearing some kind of uniform, the conical hat down to her ears, the mask around her mouth, and taking out of some pocket the ticket-printing machine, print out a ticket, which she would immediately put on the windshield of a car, I thouhgt she was having a field day putting fines.

Later, I saw her/them many days until somebody's explanation made me realize that I had been wrong. They do not put parking tickets as fines, they mark the time intervals during which cars are stopped in the parking zones. As in the picture I took the other day.

The car owner must then go pay what is owed—I guess before a few days— to any 7-11 or similar store. I found it quite odd, but it's not such a bad idea, because they save the cost of installing the automatic coin machines. You cannot get rid of the watchmen/women anyway.