Top off Your Parking Meter with a Cell Call

dstone writes "Vancouver, Canada has just become the first major city in North America to allow motorists to feed their parking meters with their cell phone. Drivers call a number on each meter, the system recognizes them by Caller ID, they enter how many minutes they want, and that's it. The system sends them a reminder text message before their time is up and they can extend their time remotely. The catch? The company contracted to provide the service, Verrus, makes their money through a 30-cent 'convenience fee.' Less pockets full of change, less parking tickets, seems like a step forward."

Comments

would never work in nyc

[pretygrrl]

seeing as how tickets have become a major source of NYC's revenue, under billionaire Bloomberg's helm. Funny how NYC local politics are still just that -- local politics, even though we are bigger in size and tax revenue than many of the world's nations.
the city has become ridiculously dependent on parking tickets - at a $110 a pop, with $20 increases every three weeks for late payments, im suprised meter maids aren't murdered in the street by rioting mobs!
some truly amazing things have been happening, like people running out to meters w. a minute to spare to see the meter maid w. the ticket prepared already, just waiting for clock to chime! amazing.
all in all, brilliantly simple. whether or not this system gets adopted i guess depends on what a city's objectives are w. regard to parking meters. If, as in the case of NYC, they are largely traps for motorists, then I don't see this getting much use.

Re:Kinda defeats a parking meter feature

[Mister Whirly]

Defending a meter maid?? Are you serious?? How old are you - eight?

Re:Kinda defeats a parking meter feature

[drinkypoo]

Chalk on tires blows off as soon as you drive away.

Not if it went on wet, like on wet tires. Then it doesn't come off until you wash it off (or drive a WHOLE bunch.) Shows how much you know: jack shit. It's not even true when it's dry, either: they just MOSTLY come off right away. The faded smudge will remain for a long time, and be very visible on cleaned tires.

If you care so much about your car, don't park it on the street.

Sometimes, there's nowhere else to park. Also, there are lots with meters. Which again, shows how much you know.

What are you going to do when someone drives by a little too close and knocks the mirror off, which I've seen happen to MANY parked cars on streets?

Probably fix it. However, that's an accident. It's stupid, and destructive - but we're talking about someone deliberately defacing my property, which is entirely fucking different. Try to stay on topic, please.