Registerguard
Pacific Grove California -- Forget about rubbing off the traffic officers chalk marks off your tires or gaining extra time from when another car leaves money on the meter.
New technologies for parking meters are changing all that. The new meters are triggered by remote sensors, and grids embedded in the street so that the system will know when a car leaves and a new car enters, thus resetting the meter to zero when the new car arrives.
The system can send information via radio signals to traffic enforcers when time runs out on any parking spot in town.
Chalk marking the tires will be a thing of the past as well, with GPS enabled cameras that scan your license plate and know how long a car has occupied the given space.
The meters can also increase parking fees over time, so quick errands remain relatively inexpensive but long stays become more costly.
For Officer Tony Marino, it's a question of changing attitudes, showing people the benefits of a system that can no longer be gamed.
``I just wish people would go with the flow,'' said Marino, whose three-wheeled cart is the center of the town's enforcement operation. ``I mean, a parking meter is like a restaurant table: We have to turn these things over.''
It is one thing when we leave money on a meter, and another person gets to use the time,
However, if the meter resets itself with time still on it, then the city is being paid double for that same parking space.
If they are going to be that picky, then I should get a refund for any amount of time left over.
1 comment:
Meter maids are also being instructed to take the change from your ashtray. You know, for the schools...
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