Peoria Cares: 494-CARE
A few weeks ago I was in my car at the intersection of Bourland and Main, facing North, trying to take a left onto Main (point of reference, exiting Campustown) waiting for a left turn signal that never came. The lights changed twice allowing southbound traffic to spill out onto Main, but my light never budged. I eventually took a right and did a u-turn; others just ran the red light.
I returned a few days later to the same scenario when I recalled a post by CJ Summers about the Peoria Cares hotline… so I gave them a buzz…
A nice young man answered; I described the situation and he said he would put this right in to the traffic department. A few days later I returned the intersection, got a green left turn arrow and smiled.
Peoria Cares.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:52 am
A few days ago, I went to fill up my gas tank. Now, keep in mind I still had some gasoline left in my car. I filled my car up, and the pump said I put 13.6 gallons into my tank. The problem is I only have a 13.2 gallon tank, and as I mentioned, I wasn’t out of gas in the first place. I have never put more than 12.x gallons in my tank since I’ve owned my car.
The place where I stopped was considerably cheaper than all the other gas stations in the area, and it all started to make sense. They were recovering their “discount” by calibrating their tanks ever so slightly in their favor. After hundreds of transactions over the course of the day, this would mean a lot of extra money for the gas station, but the average consumer wouldn’t likely notice, let alone care.
So I decided to call the police department. I got an officer on the phone, told him my story and how I felt they were scamming both their customers and other gas stations by pricing their gas so much lower, only to make it up with a miscalibrated gas pump. The officer’s response surprised me.
The tone of his voice indicated that he felt I was wasting his time, and the way he talked made me feel so small and like such a whiney douche bag for reporting the incident that I felt embarassed afterwards. I had to give myself a pep talk, reassure myself that I did the right thing, and that the officer was in the wrong for being so lazy and complacent, not me.
So I guess the point of this is that unlike Peoria, the city I live in… doesn’t care.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Pump calibration is part of the weights and measurements division in the Illinois Ag Dept. The officer was crabby because he didn’t know what to tell you, not exceptible, but such is life, a lot of people suck at their job. You should file a complaint about the gas pump tampering here:
http://www.illinois.gov/gasprices/complaint.htm
May 15th, 2008 at 9:06 am
I don’t live in Illinois.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
That’s okay Billy Bob, the link doesn’t work anyway.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Apparently it’s just temporarily down: