LA to test parking meters with SMS and credit-card payments
posted Sep 23rd 2005 12:55PM
Sure, smart parking meters
are catching on nationwide. But many are like the "muni-meters," which have begun replacing traditional parking
meters in New York, and take specialized debit cards called Parking Cards. Unfortunately, the meters don't include
Parking Card dispensers; you have to buy the cards by phone or online. So, you end up paying with — you guessed it —
quarters. But, hopefully, this will all be replaced soon by a new system now being tested in the heart of car culture,
Los Angeles. The new ATM-style meters accept cash, debit, and credit cards, and can also use SMS to send a message to
your cellphone when your time is about to expire. You can then purchase additional time simply by replying to the
message. Of course, this will bomb in LA since everyone uses valet parking there—let's hope that doesn't discourage the
developers from pitching it to New York officials as soon as freaking possible. In the meantime, here's an idea for New
York: scrap the Parking Card, and let the meters take MetroCards. Most New Yorkers already have those, and you can pick
them up in any subway station.
Baltimore currently already has these ATM style meters in use on some streets. Theres one "box" for a block of parking spots. You pay with your credit card and put the reciept on your dash board. Theres no SMS support however, that would definitely be an improvement.
This has been in effect for many years in my hometown in Norway (Trondheim)
Seattle also has the same system described by #1. It's incredibly convenient, but the SMS time extension would be awfully handy.
In Finland we have had these now for 4 years now, and believe me, I have not had parking ticket since then :)
" this will bomb in LA since everyone uses valet parking there" ...we are not ALL that rich. However, I think it will fail on a completely different level: most of the parking in downtown LA and Beverly Hills have a time limit. So what if my meter is fed, my car has been there over an hour and now it is going to get towed!
On spring break in L.A. my friends discovered that the meters in L.A. are ridiculously easily rigged to think that you've put money in when you haven't, since apparently there are shady characters standing around offering to "put money in" for you for a few bucks-then they just take a piece of wire and sorta mess around with the slot for a few seconds!
We then found a piece of wire bent almost exactly like it would be used for such a thing by another parking meter-apparently a lot of people do this sort of thing there.
Anyways, my point is, unless these new meters fix this lousy quarter detecting ability I don't think it's going to help them any.
In Estonia we have mobile-parking with mobile phone for years already: http://www.emt.ee/wwwmain?screenId=mainpage.private&componentId=MenuComponent&actionId=menuSelect&actionParam=3630&sessionThreadId=79493818&language=ENG and its good :)
Great For Tourism!
I think what NY forgot was that if you don't live in NY/NJ, you aren't likely to have a Parking Card OR a MetroCard. So if you don't happen to travel with $10 rolls of quarters in your car, your day trip to NY just turned into a week-long battle with the impound lot.
When I was studying in Poland they rolled this service out in Warsaw about 2-3 years ago... It became very populor.
Instead of simple SMS, the wireless industry in North America should really go for the biggest cash cow of them all - banking via mobiles. It's taking off in Asia, and I'm sure we would find a million uses for it here.
the sms meter renewal is the best idea yet!
i would never get parkign tickets!
and for exactly that reason do i doubt we would ever get it . . .
Haha, New Yorkers who have a metrocard are very unlikely to have a car.
Just had this sms parking here in PJ, Malaysia.
http://www.mmail.com.my/Current_News/MM/Wednesday/National/20050921100300/Article/index_html
Edinburgh has been using these for years. You text a number and get billed for your parking, superb.
Not only that they all carry solar panels on the top!
This sounds great from a driver's standpoint, but what about the city's? I bet they enjoy the revenues from parking tickets. This system would make parking tickets more difficult to give, resulting in lost revenues. Hmm.. but then they could just raise the fines for those fewer tickets they give out.