Greatest Parking Meter Your City Will Never Install
Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 21:44:31(taken from thebachelorguy.com)
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meter called the PhotoViolationMeter, that not only makes paying for parking easier, it makes getting a ticket as outdated as David Hasselhoff's hair.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.
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.
