The Bachelor Guy » The Greatest Parking Meter Your City Will Never Install

The Greatest Parking Meter Your City Will Never Install

08/07/2007

Why? Because it's smart. It's convenient. It's fair. And it's designed to eliminate parking tickets. So basically it runs contradictory to everything city governments were built on.

I understand that parking meters are necessary. What I don't understand is why cities insist on using antiquated systems. Or why the whole thing has to be so damn adversarial. (If you've ever stood, quarters in hand, pleading with a smirking meter maid writing a $30 ticket, your meter expired for just 2 minutes, while she shakes her head and tells you it's too late, gimme an Amen.)

I do my fair share of metered parking when I go out downtown. Much of the time I'm going to dinner with a date. Who wants to interrupt an interesting conversation - that's getting more and more interesting as the wine flows - to leave and run three blocks to throw another bunch of change into a "2 Hours Maximum" parking meter? (While that smarmy waiter/actor/model/personal trainer hits on your girl.)

I just got some info on Photo Violation Technologies, a company out of Vancouver, BC that has developed a new, technologically advanced meter called the PhotoViolationMeter, that not only makes paying for parking easier, it makes getting a ticket as outdated as David Hasselhoff's hair. So I'll be sending a copy to City Hall.

A thanks-for-joining-us-in-the-21st-century feature included in the PVM allows you to feed the meter with your credit or debit card, or your cell phone. Finally. No more searching for change. Or asking a pan handler if he can break a twenty.

But that's not why I'm spending all this time rhapsodizing about a parking meter. The real reasons to storm the Mayor's office are the options PVM gives you to make sure you never get a parking ticket again. Yup. Never again.

Ticket Avoidance System #1: No watch? Or forgot what time you parked? You can have the PVM call your cell phone to warn you when time is running low. And if you can't tear yourself away from whatever (or whoever), it is you're doing to pump more change in, you can pay for the extra time right over the phone.

Ticket Avoidance System #2: If you don't want to be interrupted by a call from an automated parking meter during dessert, the PVM offers a No-Fine (TM) feature that automatically pays in timed increments with your credit card. So you can enjoy that after-dinner drink without rushing out to beat a ticket.

Ticket Avoidance System #3: This one involves the generosity of the city. (I know, I'm laughing too.) If you don't opt for TAS #1 or #2, and your meter does expire, the Grace Period feature allows you, for a pre-programmed amount of time, to pay for the extra time you went over, instead of getting a ticket.

And if freeing tax-paying citizens from the hassle and embarrassment of dealing with tickets isn't enough, the PVM operates on a state-of-the-art wireless network, meaning it also provides a network of free Wi-Fi hotspots for those same tax-paying citizens.

To review: Convenient ways to pay. Ticket avoidance built in. Puts an end to the backlog and waste of cities trying to collect millions of dollars in unpaid tickets. Provides free Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the city at almost no cost.

It's too perfect. They'll never approve it.

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Comments

Gil wrote:

But it's NOT perfect. They'd lose money on all those $30 fines. Bastards

08/08/2007 06:17 AM

Adam wrote:

This was the most annoying post you've ever written. You provided pure fluff until the jump, I had to click the link just to find any info. 300 words until you tell us what the greatest parking meter in the world actually does. Pure, useless, fluff.

08/08/2007 07:00 AM

Anynomous wrote:

I don't approve of this, for it pushes on a cash-less society. Stop being a lazy ass and prepare yourself when heading downtown.

08/08/2007 12:28 PM

Matt wrote:

The reason that they will not implement this is simply that they actually want you to MOVE after two hours so that other can park and complete their 2 hours worth of business. If this was not the case the meter would max out at 24 hours or some such massive number and you could just put in all the dough you want at the beginning.

08/08/2007 12:38 PM

Eri wrote:

Yeah I once got chewed out by a metermaid for "feeding" the meter.. I think Matt has the gist of why they put a time limit.

08/08/2007 12:43 PM

Joe wrote:

This would work out great for cities that have too much money in their coffers and don't use parking tickets as a source of revenue. Naperville, Illinois for example.

08/08/2007 12:48 PM

dave wrote:

They've installed these in Niagara Falls, NY - my experience with them has been that half of them don't work at all, others try to give you a violation just for pushing the button, and only maybe 1 in 6 actually do what they claim. None of them give the option for the grace period time. I assume you were paid to write this post, because while the idea is great, the execution, in my experience is absolutely AWFUL.

08/08/2007 12:53 PM

TryingNotToBeAKilljoy wrote:

"Who wants to interrupt an interesting conversation - that's getting more and more interesting as the wine flows"
Leave the car at home - problem soved

"..the PVM offers a No-Fine (TM) feature that automatically pays in timed increments with your credit card. So you can enjoy that after-dinner drink without rushing out to beat a ticket."

LEAVE THE CAR AT HOME - problem solved

08/08/2007 01:00 PM

StatusWoe wrote:

Anyone else wonder how much wine/drinks should flow before you realize maybe you shouldn't have brought your car in the first place?

08/08/2007 01:07 PM

Josh Matthews wrote:

Seattle has a fantastic system. You can pay for multi-hour increments (1,2,3,4,6,8 if I remember correctly) with your credit card. Then it prints out a sticker that you put inside your driver's side window. The best part is, if you move your car to any other part of the city and still have time left, it's valid! I found this system to be, as Goldilocks would say, "just right".

08/08/2007 01:21 PM

Roger wrote:

It's a bad idea. People would hog parking meters. By making people go back to the meter, it increases the likelihood that they'll leave and make the rare parking place available for someone else.

08/08/2007 01:29 PM

Anonymous wrote:

This is great technology applied in a wrong headed manner.
Take the credit card and charge $X for 2 hours. Then apply a logarithmacally increasing scale for all time over an hour
$X for the next 12 minutes after that
$X for the next 72 seconds after that
$X for the next 7.2 seconds after that
$X for the next .72 seconds and so on until the card is maxed out. Then the PVT would call a tow truck and have that dead beat vehicle hauled away.

You DON"T OWN THE PARKING SPOT you panty waisted rich bitch

08/08/2007 01:44 PM

Kobra wrote:

It's a shame. That would be incredibly convenient.

08/08/2007 01:56 PM

tt wrote:

My city already has enough people that park in the meters for 10 hours at a time when they were designed for 1 hr max for you to run errands on the busy side of town

-Hoboken, NJ

08/08/2007 01:58 PM

Ceaton wrote:

Edinburgh has had parking meters you can pay by mobile phone since 2003, Dublin before that I believe.

But yeah, as everyone else has pointed out, there are reasons why there are limits on the maximum amount of time you can park. The part your forgot in your dream world was the hours of driving past Porsches and Ferraris taking up all the spaces while their owners sip champagne and pay for indefinite parking.

08/08/2007 02:16 PM

Baxter, CA wrote:

I detect more than a little class clash here. Those Porsche and Ferrari owners can easily afford to have some underling feed the meter without missing so much as a frog's leg. The real issue is you whiners are jonesing for a parking place and are jealous of those already parked. If I park a car somewhere to enjoy a relaxing dinner and a show down the street you can rest assured I am not going to gallantly move my car after two hours so you complainers can park (for as long as you want too, I would guess). Convenient parking meters are an excellent idea. The system in Seattle sounds like it's right on the money. Don't take a car? Yeah, well, fire up your bike and peddle from point A to point B on the nonexistent mass transit systems across the nation (oh, yeah, those got buried by vehicle manufacturers and 'Big Oil'.

08/08/2007 02:37 PM

AskTheAdmin wrote:

This is great ass everyone stated the MAN wouldnt go for it but if we the PEOPLE fight for it then maybe we can get something like this installed. The cities would have to find more money from moving violations - but it would be a small win!

thanks from your friends @ http://www.askTheAdmin.com

08/08/2007 02:50 PM

sfd wrote:

sdf

08/08/2007 03:02 PM

Drood wrote:

"Much of the time I'm going to dinner with a date. Who wants to interrupt an interesting conversation - that's getting more and more interesting as the wine flows - to leave and run three blocks to throw another bunch of change into a "2 Hours Maximum" parking meter?"

Well why don't you park elsewhere and walk? Or take the bus? Or a train? Or a cab, and both of you can get loaded?

Basically you want this parking meter installed so you can get pussy.

08/08/2007 03:19 PM

eastcoaster wrote:

Around here some folks make their living off the streets by feeding the meters for a fee. Why does the little guy always get screwed?

08/08/2007 03:24 PM

stealth wrote:

Regardless of whether or not a city has issues with people overstaying their welcome in a parking place (paid for or otherwise,) most cities would not switch to that type of system, IMHO.

Cities see things like parking meters as profit centers. They make quite a bit more on parking tickets than on people who actually pay to park. Because this new meter allows a person to pay by phone, a city would be forfeiting all of the revenue it makes from anyone who has parked for longer than they paid for. In effect, the city would lose lots of money because now everyone is conveniently able to pay without going over. Most city managers wouldn't allow that because it hurts their bottom line.

08/08/2007 03:26 PM

Kent wrote:

I dunno what everyone is hating on. It sounds like a great update to a shitty old system. The whole point is to make money off people who are parking there. If it gives you the option to pay or not. Thats only fair. It could also contact ticketing if theres a car in the stall and no payment after a certain amount of time. They won't have to look at every meter to find a ticketing opportunity.

08/08/2007 03:56 PM

David Grant wrote:

I live in Vancouver and I haven't used that thing yet. But they do have a system already on every single meter I have seen, that lets you call a phone number and type in the stall name and pay your parking with a credit card (that is saved after the first time if you want). When I am about to run out of minutes, it texts me on my phone and then I can add minutes if I am going to be longer than I expected. Works great. Never again will I get a ticket just for not having any change on me.

08/08/2007 04:10 PM

nashke wrote:

Israel has 2 nice systems
one is a little digital plastic box. you feed in the city code (which is usually already there since you tend to park in the same city... although useful when parking out of town), and then it counts down on the maximum time you are allowed (which is different in each city - Tel Aviv is limited to 3 hours, other cities have limits as high as 12 hours). the box counts down, so when you come back, you have used the exact time in minutes. you can "charge" the box with time in gas stations, post offices and vending machines, and it attaches to the windows for the parking inspectors to see.
the second system is using cell phones - register a service on the net, then each time you call the number on your phone you get parking time, and the money is paid from your credit card account. the inspectors can check the plate number in their system and see that it is paid by phone, no cards/paper needed.

too bad there are no parking spots... now try fixing that problem with a cell-phone...

08/08/2007 04:30 PM

Matt wrote:

A fault is that cities would fill up with Huge Mercedes and BMWs, whose owners will happily pay massively over the odds for hassle free parking. Result - no spaces for the rest of us.

Nice idea, but parking Nirvana is a little way away yet.

08/08/2007 04:34 PM

Stephen wrote:

I think you and this company misunderstand the purpose of meters. The idea is to make you move the car when it runs out. Not to give you parking for as long as you want to feed the meter.

08/08/2007 06:13 PM

Kaleberg wrote:

Cities don't install parking meters to make money by selling parking. If they did, they'd charge market rates, that is, the same rates as local parking lots and garages. Parking meters are generally much cheaper, but they have time limits. If you want open ended parking, pay the market rate. If you want a short term spot at a city subsidized price, obey the rules of the socialist nanny state.

Cities install parking meters to "vitalize" a shopping district by providing short term, easy in, easy out parking for short errands. They make the real money on the property and sales taxes. Remember, the real purpose of the street is for traffic flow, and it has an economic value.

The goal of the city is to maximize overall revenue by offering a variety of parking options to meet local needs. That's why you'll have:

- free, commercial vehicle, time limited parking for loading freight
- free taxi stands for use by specially licensed for hire vehicles
- subsidized, low cost, time limited parking at meters
- municipal and private parking lots for longer term parking

There is no reason that municipal governments shouldn't be subject to the same economic forces as everybody else. They have to satisfy their customers, their voters, their business community and so on.

P.S. You obviously don't live in LA. Even the taco stands have valet parking, at a price.

08/08/2007 06:51 PM

bdslack wrote:

I think what you miss is that it is unethical and almost illegal to charge people (poor people at that) money to park on public streets.

Streets paid by and for the tax payers. Same with toll booths.
I won't live in a city with either.

08/08/2007 07:19 PM

moomoo wrote:

I smell Mexicans waxing cars.
Period.
You know it. I know it. It's only a matter of time.

08/08/2007 07:24 PM

Sean wrote:

Now if they could get it to be entirely solar powered, the system just might be feasible. Otherwise I fear running the wire and breaking up all that concrete might be enough to tip cities away from choosing this solution. I've had almost all the above listed ideas, but I know it won't go anywhere for a long time.

08/08/2007 07:36 PM

Me wrote:

First thing, parking rates for metered parking are often WAY low than what they should be. Parking meter rates should be competitive with the rates of parking garages. If this were the case, many people would end up going to parking garages when available rather than driving around aimlessly looking for that lone open space that is 1/3 the cost of a commercial lot. Secondly, timed meters are because parking spaces such as those are meant for short term parking, not to sit your car there for 8 hours and have your parking meter bill your credit card 25c every hour or two. This allows other people the opportunity to use those spaces when they need to do a quick errand. The real solution is to NOT implement this advanced parking meter and to raise the parking rates. This way people do not have to drive aimlessly around looking for an open cheap parking spot and therefore contribute to traffic and air pollution.

08/08/2007 07:49 PM

Me wrote:

Correction, parking meter rates should be HIGHER than parking garages, so that a premium is assessed for a spot that is close to where you are going.

08/08/2007 07:52 PM

rob wrote:

The idea of wifi i find really appealing, as for the pay by phone, theres enough fraud out there already, it won't kill you to feed a few quarters.

08/08/2007 08:22 PM

Ben McDowall wrote:

I live in NEW ZEALAND and we already use this, all parking meters in my city centre Christchurch have the ability to pay with credit, cash or cellphones! hahah i cant believe you only heard of this just now hahaha

08/08/2007 08:39 PM

jon wrote:

don't the meters end before dinnertime and especially before barhopping time?

08/08/2007 09:26 PM

Michael wrote:

I think your missing the whole point of a 2 hour parking meter, it's not meant to make you refill your meter after 2 hours it's for you to move your car after 2 hours and let someone else use it. If you need longer than 2 hours try using off street parking or if your too cheap for that public transport.

08/08/2007 09:38 PM

syahid ali wrote:

a smarter parking meter. i object! lol!

08/08/2007 09:49 PM

Sean wrote:

Also, we should have bi-level parking down urban streets. Like a parking garage that spans the street with staircases every few hundred feet. Double the parking spaces and still be close enough to walk right in to a storefront/office. Chicago has bi-level roads and an El-train... Just take that elevated road, split it down the middle, and put each half above the sides of the street

08/08/2007 09:57 PM

Stephen wrote:

This is not new, nor is it yet to be installed anywhere. Systems like this all over the place, and the one in my city (Calgary) is also solar powered.

If anything, the city makes more money off of it. People don't pay attention to how much it is costing them unless they see the money change hands.

08/08/2007 10:26 PM

Daniel wrote:

There's something like this in Coconut Grove, FL. There is one meter for probably around 20 spots. You can pay by credit card, debit card, or cash. It then gives you a ticket you put inside your car. The problem is the machine can take forever sometimes to dial the bank for the money. I suggest always having a roll of quarters in the car.

08/08/2007 11:00 PM

Tom wrote:

Yawn. If I go to Vienna (Austria, not US) I pay my parking fees via text message and can top it up (until a cap is reached, then you gotta move away you pile of metal). Easy as can be, much cheaper than having technology on every single parking space (because you don't need any), the system is valid for the hole town. Brilliant!

08/09/2007 12:28 AM

James wrote:

A much easier solution, meters accept $20s, and automatically charge you based on how long you are there, when you are ready to leave you enter a code and cash out with whatever is left. If the meter only allows you to park for 2 hours, then it charges you more each hour over that, until your $20 is gone. Installing wifi, credit card atms on every meter is obsurd, perhaps they have a meter station though for several meters.

08/09/2007 06:14 AM

Kristina wrote:

I think this is dumb... illegal towing happens all the time and besides someone has to paid the meter maids their high ticket salaries

08/09/2007 06:44 AM

Andres wrote:

i agree with kris. in nyc the revenue on "invalid" tickets is out of control! but if people don't team up and say something, they can't complain!!

08/09/2007 06:46 AM

ANON wrote:

all you are doing is trying to drink another glass of wine with your date or have a another drink after work.. take a taxi if you plan on drinking you D!CKHEAD!

08/09/2007 07:48 AM

Chris wrote:

Glad I live in a small city where parking meters/tickets don't exist :)

08/09/2007 10:35 AM

Mike wrote:

I can't belive that people still actually accept that parking meters are OK ???

How about next we pay for air too ???

It's just greed & the mentality that everything has to have a requlation/law !, ideas like these alwasy start small then you are lead to belive it's part of normal life & even there's "logical" explanation for it !!! instead of seeing teh real problem instead of the "quick" fix !

There's so many wrong things in the world today & parking meters are one of them

Think about it ? you are not a free man when you pay to stand on the street !?

If there isn't not enough spaces in a place then there should be more spaces instead of building more, commercial, buildings! & people go & come all the time so in practice we all know that you'll alwasy find a free space

Every building/destination shold have it's own free parking space then there's no problem, well I guess all if not most have their own so there's no probem to start with unless the building/destination doesn't have it's own free parking space (or the place you are going to) & why is that , commercail gain again ? just jamming the place everytime with more buildings & then come short in accomadating it's own visitors/customers ?

We all know how big earth is & yet people lead to belive that earth will be jammed by over population !!! & now that we will not have enough parking space for the rest of us !!!!

Businesses or otherwise buildings need our business why would we pay for them to have customers come to them! it's like having your cake & eating it to !

The only other thing is if you want that street parking for convenience, in that case well it's 1st come 1st served !

Govs should even buy spaces & make them free parking if they badly designed the city to start with !

We already had Nirvana on earth but greed has no limit !

http://idolornot.net

08/10/2007 10:39 PM

two wrote:

Parking meters are supposed to limit the amount of time you park in a space. They're usually placed in areas where people go shopping. Having a meter that allows you to continuously extend the amount of time is pretty much the opposite of what the city would want. Assuming the street parking is really limited, what you would want is a meter that knows NOT to allow the person that parked to extend their time, so that someone else can use the spot.

Sure, that's contingent on more parking garages or lots, so that people that need longer time can pay more and put their cars in a longer term spot.

08/11/2007 03:42 PM

FAT wrote:

The parking meters in Seattle were already mentioned. The worst part of the meters though is that they do not take all legal forms of payment. Plus, you have to buy a minimum amount of time. You can not just buy 5 minutes of time. You are limited to 12 minutes which is a quarter. I am so mad that I can not use pennies in the meters.

08/11/2007 07:56 PM

Peter wrote:

San Francisco is going to install some parking meters similar to what you describe. "Park by phone: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will be rolling out a pilot program Friday that will allow people to use their cell phones to pay their parking meters.

The 90-day trial program will involve nine off-street parking lots in the Richmond, West Portal and Marina districts.

New Parking Inc. is providing the service for free. Zipidy is charging a flat $5 per month to the customer. And Verrus Mobile is charging 35 cents per transaction.

If it proves a winner, one of the three companies may be selected to wire all 28,000 meters in San Francisco.

And get this - when you pay by phone, your cell gets a text message warning you when your time is about to expire so you can re-up, wherever you are."

"http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/a...

09/05/2007 11:02 AM

runted wrote:

I live in downtown Seattle, Belltown to be precise. The parking situation in this area is awful. I couldn't care less if people feed the meter for 8 hours, they got there before me, so they can stay as long as they like. What I have a problem with is the complete lack of zoning or allowances for residents of the area (of which there are thousands). Considering that the residents of Belltown are bringing more money into local business than the visiting shoppers, why the fuck do the residents have to succumb to the added taxation of parking on a public street that has already been paid for through taxes? Blatant highway robbery, that's what it is.

"come live in the city, but fuck off if you want to park here too"

10/30/2007 04:51 PM

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