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"Smart" Parking Meters Considered Dumb
theodp writes "The jury's still out on whether Chicago taxpayers were taken to the cleaners by a rushed 75-year lease of the city's metered parking to a Morgan Stanley consortium. But most would probably agree that the new shared Pay Boxes that replaced the city's old parking meters don't exactly live up to their 'Smart' billing. Here's what the redesigned 'user-friendly' parking solution looks like: 1. Park your car. 2. Walk up to 1/2 block to a Pay Box. 3. Wait in line to use it. 4. Use coins or credit cards to purchase parking time — up to $84 for 24-hours (add $50 if you run out of time). 5. Wait for a paper receipt to be printed. 6. Walk up to 1/2 block back to your car. 7. Place the receipt on your dashboard. 8. Head off to your destination, perhaps passing the Pay Box a second time. So before other cities suffer the same fate as Chicago, Portland, and others, is there a 'smarter' way? Some suggest the ParkMagic In-Car Meter, but no new orders are being taken in Chicago. Any other ideas?"
Yay, first post!
They have those things in Sacramento California also, they suck! I hate them! They're the worst!
I heard in some cities though that they place sensors under the parking spots that reset the meter whenever somebody removes their car, as another way of making sure nobody gets any free time.
If one were to forge the ticket (which can not be examined closely while under the dash glass...), I wonder how often the meter readers would actually check the machine data or ticket number/serial?
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Also, the new meters could have worked, but the out-sourcing to a private company destroyed any hope of that.
An example of their ineptitude: they forgot to put batteries in some of the meters, making it impossible to get the magic slip of paper, and then ticketed people for it.
old style meters if you park at one with time left over then the city "lost" money
new meters when you park unless someone gives you a ticket with time on it you have to pay even if the person before you didn't use all their time
Maybe something similar to the toll system called ezpass. http://www.ezpass.com/
Instead call it e-zpark or whatever. After being in your parking spot for X amount of time, charge your account for it. That way, you don't pay for time not used and you also don't have to waste time feeding the meter. You also won't be dupped into feeding the meter when they're free (such as on the weekend or after hours). For spots with a time limit, they could increase the rate after you've reached the time limit and/or send you a txt message telling you that you're time was about up.
Here in Calgary there's a similar system called Park Plus. If you park downtown you have to find one of the park plus machines (they're not very hard to find, they're all over the place), and punch in your license plate # and a 4 digit code indicating where you're parked (those are on signs all over the place too). There's no receipt or parking pass though. The system is enforced by a set of trucks covered in cameras and antennas. I presume they automatically scan the license plate of every parked car and check against the central system whether you've paid or not. What's pretty cool about it is you can also setup a debit account with the system, and then pay through your cell phone- call the system once when you park to 'check in' and again when you leave to 'check out' and it deducts the payment from your account.
Where I live, Burbank, CA, we got rid of all parking meters -- and good riddance to boot! You can park anywhere in Burbank without paying a fee -- pull into any city lot and go to the local AMC Theater, watch a movie --> head on over to your favorite eating spot, have a bit to eat --> head on over to the ice cream shop, get a double-dipper --> browser the magazine shop, read later PC Magazine --> walk the Media Center Mall, hang out with friends --> finally head back to your car! NO RUNNING TO DROP QUARTER. Nice
The Spice Must Flow!
The Calgary system is indeed pretty slick - you enter your license plate # into the pay machine, can pay via cellphone or even on the internet, and there's a truck that drives around with like 8 cameras on it doing OCR on all these plates. You get your ticket in the mail in a week or two with a pic of your vehicle - kind of like photo radar. I think it's called the ParkPlus system but I could be wrong.
Everyone says they want cities to stop over spending on infrastructure and to have realistic services but every time they inconvenience you just a little bit it's back to "spend spend spend! I can't walk half a block!"
In a number of cities in Israel you purchase scratch-off cards in connivence-stores. When you want to park you scratch the date/time off the card (to "activate" it) and hang it in your window. I think its pretty brilliant. No physical infrastructure to maintain. To money/coins to collect. If the city wants to change the price of parking - they just change it. No machines to update.
My city started installing this system and I thought it was inefficient but could be more convenient in some circumstances.
However, I talked to one of the parking enforcement people and it was eye opening. They now know exactly when a meter expires via a wireless link from the smart meter to a handheld device. No need to walk past every meter now. They can just get a reading of which spot is expired and if a car is in that spot.
It's just a giant money grab by the city under the guise of "smart" technology. It's smart alright - smart for the city.
In Ann Arbor, the "smart" meters are susceptible to an exploit where if you add 5 cents of time to a meter, you remove all the existing time on that meter. For $1, a prankster can reset 20 parking spots and watch everyone get parking tickets. More info at this screenshot of a now-deleted comment on AnnArbor.com.
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
And painted lines are either too small to parallel park your stupid Hummer, or a massive waste of space to park a smart car. Without lines, you can squeeze more cars into a block because people get right on each others ass--which is the way it should be. Everybody should get on each others ass, that way there is no wasted space.
Put in lines, and you waste an assload of space so some idiot can parallel park his boat-car.
No thanks. I'll keep my city streets free of painted lines and if they become painted, I (and most of my neighbors) will take the suggestion, but if there is enough space, we'll happily park our cars between the lines. After all, when it takes 15 or 25 minutes to find a space, if my car can fit, I'm parking it--fuck your lines.
PS: nothing makes me smile more than grown men who need their wife/girlfriend/friend to get out and guide them into *giant* spot. Buddy, I can park your car so there is only two inches between the guy in front and the guy behind and do it without tapping either bumper. It takes a while, but as I said, when you look for 25 minutes to find a spot--if I even think I can fit, fuck it, I'm going in!
Hmm. Maybe I don't fully understand this system but from what I gather, it still seems pretty convoluted to me; even if it implemented that spot number thing.
I'm from Singapore. Here, every vehicle has an electronic device with a stored value card in it. On the way in, a wireless scanner logs you in, and on the way out the same system clocks you out, calculates the total time you spent in the lot (minus 5 minutes goodwill to allow you to find a spot) and deducts the appropriate amount from the card.
Both the entrance and exit are gated and the gates won't open if 1) all the lots are full or 2) you don't have enough value in your card to pay. Top up stations exist within walking distance so you never end up being unable to leave.
Arlington, VA has recently replaced alot of their parking meters with them as well. Each space has an individual meter that works exactly like the old one did, except it can take a credit card as well. Problem solved.
Here in Auckland, NZ, we just fire a text message to the parking meter's 4 digit shortcode. $2 comes off the mobile balance, and parking paid. Granted, there needs to be a nearby parking meter so you can get the validation code from it, but they're not more than maybe 20 metres away in most places. You can still pay by cash or Visa if you want to.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Don't know if they still do this in Germany, but when I was a kid I remember an honor system they had for parking time limits The way it works is you have a big plastic dial that you set to the current time, and place on your dashboard. Parking enforcement comes around once in a while, and checks when you said you left your car. If you set your dial ahead when you get out of the car and they spot it, you get a ticket. If the dial says you got out too long ago, you get a ticket.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
And yet they too are mysteriously empty!
I'm with GP I never have quarters. I never have cash. I have never have quarters. I never have nickels. As far as I'm concerned magnetic strips are the only way to pay with for goods and services.
and that is not a bad thing. Study after study has shown that by charging for parking you build in some the economic externalities into the cost of driving. think of it as a way to discourage congestion. it gives more people the opportunity to park downtown if people are discouraged from lingering. Sure you could charge more for gas or have fees to enter the city, or any number of things but this is easy to implement and has fewer side effects (as raising gas would). By making it difficult you pay with nuisance and wasted time rather than cash, which is a less regressive form of taxation.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
You think that's a joke, but I have heard of at least one company of this sort getting fidgety about contract re-negotiations, and holding all of the cars ransom when they didn't win. Cars get to just rot in there, and everybody gets a bad feeling about robo-parking for a while.
Turns out the Accounts department didn't like me doing that, and cancelled it without telling me. Apparently they'd rather I fill out an expense claim, get it signed by my manager, than fax it to accounts, at which stage they'd credit it to me again. For two dollars, every month (man of principle, etc.)
Corporate Accountants FTW - without them two dollars each month would be incorrectly classified as Telecomms rather than Travel - thank god they caught me out at my terrible little game.
Parking meters in Montréal are being replaced by smart Linux wireless solar-powered boxes. The whole of downtown is done by now.
To use them, you just need to note the parking spot number, then walk to the nearby pay station in which you key-in the spot number and pay (they take credit and bank cards) for the duration you plan to park. You get a receipt which you don’t need to put on your dashboard; the parking spot and duration is sent to a central server.
Parking enforcement agents (the legendary “ green onions ”) then are told by a hand-held computer which spots haven't been paid or are expired when they do their rounds. The computer only needs to be told the license plate number, and it prints the whole parking ticket automagically without subjecting the green onion to the risk of writer’s cramp (unfortunately, he still has to get out of his car and put it under the wipers).
Can somebody please give a solid answer as to why these meters are a problem?
I haven't looked into the details of the Chicago or Portland meters, but... there's more than one company that makes these meters, and maybe the Portland ones are good and the Chicago ones suck? Or maybe the Chicago ones are too sparse and the Portland ones are placed frequently enough?
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Actually for at least three or more years in Belgrade, Serbia payment with mobile phones is already in use in some areas.
http://www.parking-servis.co.rs/en/parking_facilities/zones/zones_with_time_limit/payment_of_parking
At the beginning of every block, there's a signpost with a code of the area and a phone number. You use the code of the area and your registration and send an SMS. This pays for an hour of parking. about 15 minutes before your time expires you receive a reminder SMS that also gives you an option to extend for another hour.
Simple, effective and convenient. If you're parking in the same area often, you only need to check the area code for the first time. After that you can have it stored in your phone and you're good to go.
The "meter" guys then simply lookup your car plate and see if you paid or not.
For those who don't have a mobile phone there are also alternative means of paying, but this one serves as the main one.
We have these types of parking meters, but every meter also has a number on a pole on top of it and you can park your car and pay by calling a number and entering the zone number. When you step into the car you call the number again to stop the meter. The system has been used in Amsterdam for several years, it is called 'Yellowbrick'. For me the greatest advantages is that I pay by the minute and don't need to carry a kg of coins with me, and I get a nice invoice in my e-mail every time I park, that's especially useful for business-related parking.
In my part of the world, namely Estonia, most parking can be done with a cellphone. Fire off an SMS with your car plates and the zone you are parking(usually clearly visible somewhere near by) in to start the parking, and you are free to walk off. When you return, you make a 2 second call to another number and your parking is complete. SMS will be sent to you detailing the cost of parking. You pay it with your phone bill. This system is in addition to the meter system similar to OP-s.
This kind of parking zone is still around, yes.