More cities using personal parking meters

Parking meters have made huge strides in recent years, with some of them -- such as pay-by-cell systems -- providing increased convenience to change-starved consumers, while others -- like auto-resetting meters -- have made it harder to get away with modest infractions like picking up a previous parker's minutes. Now, what may be the ultimate in parking convenience, the "personal meter" is starting to catch on in more major cities. The small card readers have been around for several years, but have recently become more popular; last month, Buffalo expanded its pilot system from a service for handicapped drivers to a citywide program. Buffalo's system, like many others, relies on the Smart Park reader, from Israel's Ganis Systems. The card reader can hang from a car's rearview mirror, and can be programmed with a city's parking rules. When a driver parks, he inserts the card into the meter, sets it for his location, and the meter starts ticking away. Enforcement officers with handheld receivers spot-check cars, and issue tickets based on data they download via an IR link. The system definitely sounds convenient, and could eliminate all of those tickets for underestimating how long you're going to be parked. However, we can't help but think it could be improved by adding wireless communication with servers that can automatically track violations and issue tickets. This could be more efficient than the spot-check system, even if it would put Lovely Rita out of a job.

[Aaron @ May 3rd 2006 10:15AM]

Great, just another way to encurage people to stay away from the citys. I will not go for this personal parking meters. This is a bad joke and will be used to extort more money from the consumer.

[push2flush @ May 3rd 2006 10:22AM]

the semi-obscure beatles reference made me chuckle...

[Tomas @ May 3rd 2006 10:28AM]

"have made it harder to get away with modest infractions like picking up a previous parker's minutes"

Wait, it's an infraction to use someone's extra time? God forbid a city is only able to collect for the number of hours in a day.

[Pat @ May 3rd 2006 10:33AM]

Yeah, dont kill me, but I used to work parking enforcement at my university and we used the personal parking meter system. I still had to cehck every one in their windshield because some people would just hang them in the window without them on or some people would not have them charged. So yeah, good ideo, that doesnt always work.

[Amnesia @ May 3rd 2006 11:46AM]

Like EasyPass, will this system leave traces of you wherever you? Thanks, but no thanks---I'll stick to cash.

[Ronjon @ May 3rd 2006 12:03PM]

Another gadget to track my usage, travel etc. Pay by cell works fine with me.. this stupid thing.. Many problems
-privacy concerns
-magnet for theft and broken windows (hanging from your rearview mirror? please!!)
-looks ugly hanging there
-bet we would have to buy the f**king things too
-what do tourists do?
-whats to stop someone from making a hack that sends out the right signal and hanging that from their rearview

Rita makes enough money, and should have to do some work for it, which includes looking on the dashboard for the ticket, or looking at the meter to ensure there is still time.

[Froggy @ May 3rd 2006 12:55PM]

@Ronjon

I give hackers about 2 weeks to come out with the workaround for having the system say you just arrived even after 3 days of parking ;)

Not to mention that no one is to stop someone from hacking into your system and steal any information that might be stored there... like credit card, acc. #, etc.

Why not stick with something simple -- like an ATM like machine that stands on the corner, takes cash or credit, prints out a ticket for you that you need to place in your windshied, does not really invade your privacy, costs a lot less and is less prone to abuse? Tech for tech's sake... have fun Buffalo

[Grover Saunders @ May 3rd 2006 1:54PM]

Ummm...do you guys think city hall is pulling in millions a quarter at a time? I wager (though I have no facts to back it up) that they probably break about even in most cases but even if that's not the case, it probably isn't much. The point of meters isn't to make a bunch of cash, it's to keep high traffic parking areas moving. Otherwise, rich folk with wads of cash would just take up prime parking spots all day. Hell, at going rates, *I* could afford to use a meter all day.

That's also why it's illegal to fill someone else's meter.

[dc @ May 3rd 2006 3:11PM]

Washington D.C. (where i live) generates well over 1 Million dollar a year in parking meter revenue, that is nothing compared to the 60 Million it gets annually in parking tickets for people who do not pay their meter. So yeah, city hall is pulling in millions of quarters in at a time.

[aonicc @ May 3rd 2006 3:23PM]

what happened to meter keys/cards? in boulder we have keys and cards that have prepaids amounts of cash that you stick into the meter. easier than carrying around quarters, doesn't shaft tourists, and has absolutely no privacy concern whatsoever.

[Dash Dingo @ May 3rd 2006 3:46PM]

Finally, Buffalo does something.

[dc @ May 3rd 2006 3:46PM]

my bad, i messed up... DC generates over 1 Million A MONTH in parking meter revenue. (the 60M per year amount is still correct)

[PanMan @ May 4th 2006 4:32AM]

We have had them for years now in Amsterdam (the Netherlands, that is), where parking is above �4/hour. I think here they don't have any wireless capabilities, just a counter that is showing that the balance on the card is actually going down. They are quite populair with thieves, and I have allready seen steel casings for them.
Actually nowadays they are promoting the switch to a mobile based payment system (where you call when you arrive and leave), and you get a discount if you trade in such a device.
I have heard on hacked versions, which are supossedly for sale, and report that everything is working, but don't substract money from your card.

[Mojo @ May 4th 2006 4:10PM]

Well, at least then she'd be free to take some tea with me.

[MobileWatch.eu @ May 10th 2006 12:49PM]

Just what I need. Over the past two weeks I've become $100 poorer because of parking. The UK is said to be an "early adopter", but I've yet to see them.

[RJ @ May 13th 2006 2:43AM]

Yeah great, a new way for the cities to give people their own personal parking ticket.

[Stratosmac @ Aug 7th 2006 9:52AM]

How would these personal meters work on a motorbike? hang it off the handlebar for someone else to take?