Paid parking in Lebanon first showed up back in 2004, but a couple years ago it basically became free.

Then in 2020, it suddenly came out that parking fees were being collected regularly, but not a single lira ever made it into the government's coffers from day one. Parking operators unofficially said that just in Beirut alone, people were paying around $6M a year.

Politicians claimed all the money went toward installing new parking meters. Residents weren't really buying that excuse and just stopped paying for parking altogether. And apparently nobody's getting in trouble for it either. The signs and meters are still there though.