TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: You Can't Foil These Parking Meters/Technology Makes it Easier

You Can't Foil These Parking Meters/Technology Makes it Easier

Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Mon, 5 Sep 2005 21:53:32 -0400

Technology makes it easier to nail offending drivers

By Associated Press | September 5, 2005

PACIFIC GROVE, Calif. -- In this seaside town, parking meters don't
grant those magical few minutes on someone else's dime. Each time a
car pulls away from a space, the meter automatically resets to zero.

Little is left to chance in the brave new world of parking technology:
Meters are triggered by remote sensors, customers pay for street time
by cellphone, and solar-powered vending machines create customized
parking plans for the motorist.

Oh, and forget about rubbing the traffic officer's chalk mark off your
tires on the streets of cities where short-term parking is free but
overstays are punished by fines.

If you're in Monterey, Calif., or Chicago, you're apt to be foiled by
parking officials who drive minicarts outfitted with GPS-enabled
cameras that scan your license plate and know how long a car has
occupied the given space.

Major metropolises like New York and Toronto have been phasing out
coin-operated, single-spaced meters for years. But smaller cities
including Aspen, Colo., and Savannah, Ga., have started ditching them,
too.

Advanced parking technologies can lower a city's operating costs,
reduce staffing needs, and increase ticketing accuracy, resulting in
fewer challenges in traffic court. Bill Francis, a vice president at
the Los Angeles-based Walker Parking Consultants, says technology can
also help local officials more smoothly collect on outstanding
tickets, which for several cities he's familiar with added up to $4
million in just five years.

Pacific Grove, a coastal resort town where visitors to the nearby
Monterey Bay Aquarium and Pebble Beach golf course compete with locals
for the few oceanside spaces, went for the gold when it went digital
last year.

It installed meters that increase parking fees over time, so that
quick errands remain relatively inexpensive but long stays become more
costly.

A wire grid under the pavement triggers a sensor whenever a car pulls
in. The information can be sent wirelessly via radio signals to
traffic enforcers so they'd know when time runs out on any parking
spot in town. The meter resets itself as soon as the car pulls away,
so the next car has to pay the full fee.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/09/05/you_cant_foil_these_parking_meters/

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