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Relief From Parking Meter Anxiety?
Aug 17 2007 by Sara Lacey
8/17/2007
Technology Could Deliver Us From Hassle
If I could pin my angst about downtown driving on one thing, it wouldn't be the congestion, the micromini parking spots, the one-way streets or even the maze-like feeling. It would be the parking meters. I don't like constantly looking at my watch in fear, trying to remember when I parked and how much time I have left. It seems like every meter gives you a different amount of time for different amounts of change, and some only take certain coins while others take whatever you've got. That angst has been exacerbated by my kids' receipt of piggy banks. They've taken to raiding every nook and cranny they can find in search of loot for their banks, including the change holder in my car.
Well, it looks like relief is in sight. A PhotoViolationMeter is being tested in Vancouver, British Columbia; Niagara Falls, N.Y.; and San Francisco. The meter takes credit cards (huge bonus), and if you want it to it will call your phone if you're running low on time. At that point, you can pay more via phone! You can even select the no-fine option, which lets you pay automatically in timed increments. In addition, because the PVM is part of a wireless network, you can sit in your car and check your email or surf the internet. Not a bad way to kill the extra time on that meter. Slick!
On the downside, the PVM utilizes photo technology to take a picture of your license plate and bust you if you haven't fed it. I don't know about you, but there's something a bit creepy about photographic evidence that just seems to rub me the wrong way. Also, the PVM resets every time a car leaves the scene, eliminating the 'borrowed time' scenario so many of us pray for when parking at a meter. Plus it robs me of all that good juju I feel I'm building up when I leave the next parker some free minutes.
If you live in one of those cities and have used a PVM, let us know how they work. Are they quick, easy and convenient, or an aggravation? Do the upsides outweigh the bad? Because I'm hoping the piggy bank victims of the world will have an easy, panic-free way to navigate downtown parking from now on.
User Comments
And this is the cost ( 15.000 U S D )
No it is much more now it is market
penetration price but later it will cost us much more if we buy the PVM
and this is with out maintanance and insurance Ha
I had to park three times where PVM
and evry time from fear of the camara
(which I hate and only because it is the end of my privte life not just a simbole THE END as I do not know when and why I am photoed )I left more then an hour fee in the PVM
By the way why dont they use the new
P P M ( personal parking meter ) system