Top off Your Parking Meter with a Cell Call 430
dstone writes "Vancouver, Canada has just become the first major city in North America to allow motorists to feed their parking meters with their cell phone. Drivers call a number on each meter, the system recognizes them by Caller ID, they enter how many minutes they want, and that's it. The system sends them a reminder text message before their time is up and they can extend their time remotely. The catch? The company contracted to provide the service, Verrus, makes their money through a 30-cent 'convenience fee.' Less pockets full of change, less parking tickets, seems like a step forward."
Wrong Number? (Score:5, Insightful)
Kinda defeats a parking meter feature (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not way off-track one of the purposes of a parking meter is the annoyance feature. Keeps a set of rich guys from pumping quarters in it all day long without any negative consequences for them.
This tech enables that sort of behavior.
And then the poor slobs get to walk a half a mile just to get to the courthouse.....
Competition (Score:2, Insightful)
While it would be feasible to maintain an account with several providers in different cities, it seems like a government-sponsered portal would make more sense than required accounts to be created directly on the company site. Maybe this won't be an issue since most of one's parking would be in one city; just a thought.
Re:Wrong Number? (Score:1, Insightful)
more lazy people (Score:3, Insightful)
Granted, there are some instances when this would be nice, but I think most people would use it because they are just plan lazy. Convenience, less exercise, and more food has made this nation very plump.
Also, why would a city want to risk losing that much revenue from all those tickets?
Is there a top-up limit? (Score:0, Insightful)
One of the major reasons we have meters in the city I live in (TacosCornhole, ND) was to promote high turnover parking in the urban areas - to make it more convenent for shoppers and the like.
My nuts smell like WD40.
Sounds like wasted VC money (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:"Convenience" fees! Heh. (Score:3, Insightful)
Scare quotes (Score:5, Insightful)
Either way, editorializing in the summary is silly.
Re:"Convenience" fees! Heh. (Score:1, Insightful)
Uh huh. Except... (Score:5, Insightful)
2) I don't have a credit card
3) I don't like The Man tracking my activities, right down to where and when I park
Just a thought.
Re:"Convenience" fees! Heh. (Score:2, Insightful)
- You get your cutelery yourself
- You get straws yourself
- You clear up after yourself (disposing in the trash
And then on a wider levels
- At the coffee shop, your add your own extra (milk, sugar, etc.)
- At the supermarket you collect your own groceries (compare this to the grocers at the market, or of the '40s and '50s)
- You server yourself gas (if you're not in NJ)
However, these are by no means negative. You get to choose exactly what you want, prices are cheaper and queues are shortened.
Re:more lazy people (Score:1, Insightful)
Oddly enough, unlike private corporations, some cities do actually do things to benefit their citizens....even if they lose money on it. (they just raise taxes)
Re:Kinda defeats a parking meter feature (Score:1, Insightful)
You know what I don't get?
Arrogant dumbshits that think just because something is of no use to them, that it can't be of use to anyone.
Been around a while (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Old News (Score:2, Insightful)
I do believe this will completely change the parking scene in Vancouver. Anyone who has been downtown and tried to park there knows it is impossible. This means that now, for sure, anyone who gets there first will be there all day. Previously spaces opened up due to people running out of change and leaving or people getting towed. This would also be a good method of topping up at the various Impark parking lots in Calgary and Edmonton. I almost always underestimate the time I need, I think everyone does.
Of course, Impark won't do this since it makes more money giving tickets than selling parking space. They are vultures! The ticket is already written up by the time you have 1-minute left, just in case.
The article explains this is the first major city in North America to do this. Not to mention this is in CANADA. I think you have Canada confused with the United States with your comment.
Re:Scare quotes (Score:5, Insightful)
It's about the money (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:"Convenience" fees! Heh. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Meter stuffingt = bad (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Kinda defeats a parking meter feature (Score:4, Insightful)
Congrats, asshole. Way to ruin a guy's day while he was doing his job. We've all been pissed about parking tickets, but the onus is on the owner of the car to make sure the meter is paid, not the person in charge of writing tickets. Why should you expect leniency from a cop who probably has to do that all day? To him, your car is no more important than the thousands of others out there.
Re:"Convenience" fees! Heh. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wrong Number? (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems like a good idea, however the cynical side of me also wonders that if in addition text messaging the owner of the vehicle when the payment is about to expire, it might also be text messaging the parking enforcement officer for the area to keep an eye out in areas with lots of meters that are expiring at the same time so they know where to concentrate their "efforts"...
It would also be nice if they could do this as a straight text message by phone instead of by voice. Could be a lot faster...
N.
Re:Kinda defeats a parking meter feature (Score:3, Insightful)
1 hour: $2; 2 hours: $5; 3 hours: $9
Notice how the pricing is scaled to deter long term parking. These machines DO NOT TAKE BILLS, so you must carry huge amounts of quarters with you.
Conclusion: If cell phone payment methods become widespread in the US, I expect either sharp rate increases or maximum time limits before you must return to the machine to compensate for the removal of inconvenience.
Re:Kinda defeats a parking meter feature (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Kinda defeats a parking meter feature (Score:2, Insightful)
In Boston, they use the big yellow locks on the wheels (can't recall the name) for serious parking offenses. That kinda bugs me too because they must really destroy the wheels. Gives me real incentive to just use a gargage.
Re:Kinda defeats a parking meter feature (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:"Convenience" fees! Heh. (Score:3, Insightful)
A for the snotty little stab at my perception, at least I can recognize when I 'm being a theiving douchebag. If you want to really vote with your dollar, your gonna have to go without.
Your popcorn wasn't subsidized by advertising at the movie theater. The advertising was put there to create a new revenue stream becuase the theaters were losing money. Probably because a large amount of people justify their deceitful behavior with some sort of magic logic where they are the good guy screwing over the evil corporation.
You are a factor buddy, face it.
security issues? (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, can I do a "chargeback"? What if I charge up my phone bill with parking fees, and dispute the charges at the end of the month?
Re:Uh huh. Except... (Score:4, Insightful)
You're concerned about The Man knowing where you park your registered motor vehicle, license plate clearly visible as required by law, on a public street? As you enter and exit your vehicle in public view. Yep, that's some highly sensitive and privileged information right there.
Re:Uh huh. Except... (Score:3, Insightful)
"Who was parked at 3rd & Main last tuesday at 2PM?"
If you willingly give them the data for them to store, it will be easy to find out.
Re:"Convenience" fees! Heh. (Score:4, Insightful)
Well the popcorn refills where I worked at were "same visit only"... but I'd say about 75% of the people who got popcorn refills were bringing in bags that were clearly from weeks ago (sometimes they'd have movies on the bag from a year ago). Honestly, we the employees didn't much care and just gave them the refill. The managers only sort of cared.
I actually was really annoyed by an AMC employee a few months ago. I was buying tickets for me and a friend... and I got the student discount on mine, but she refused to give me a discount on the other one, too. So I just bought one and then went to a different counter to buy another student ticket. But she saw me and made a big fuss about it saying "Don't sell him a student ticket! He just bought one from me!"
She didn't HAVE to go out of her way to make a fuss about it. But she did.
It was ridiculous to me, because that ticket money (which was still about $6.50 or more) wasn't even going to them, it was going to the movie studios and MPAA. Plus, I just don't know how she could care so much to be such a dick to me about it... she's only making minimum wage, and this is likely going to be the worst job she ever has. Back in my day at the movie theater I wouldn't have cared. And usually, most people who work there don't care, and just give you the student discount even if you don't show them your college ID. But oh no, not her. She took her job SERIOUSLY.
And by the way, how irritating of you to be the kind of guy who goes out of his way to report people who are getting popcorn refills from past days... do you have no happiness in your life?
I can imagine being the guy behind the counter, knowing full well this guy's popcorn bag is old, but being nice enough to refill it anyway so he can enjoy a movie and be happy. Then along comes another customer (in this case, you) making a big fuss about how this guy is a thief and how you know his popcorn bag is old, etc. It really doesn't make anyone's day better.
Re:Kinda defeats a parking meter feature (Score:5, Insightful)
You're blaming the freakin' meter maid for mandatory life sentences?! While I agree that the police might be given more rights than they should, you're talking about the person that's hired to make sure your dumbass is fairly paying for general road repairs! What, do you blame the janitor for having to wash your hands after taking a crap at work?
Spoof Caller ID for Free Parking (Score:1, Insightful)
Now one just has to find a phone no. of someone who has used the service, and make a spoofed-caller-ID call using that phone no. to add time to any meter they want!
Free parking, anyone?
Re:Meter stuffingt = bad (Score:3, Insightful)
There are other examples of this:
1. If they REALLY wanted to curb speeding, they would make all speeding tickets be for $10,000 and 30 days in jail, and speeding would stop overnight! Speeding fines are calculated to be as high as possible, without actually detering speeding, in order to maximize profits.
2. Same thing with cigarette tax: Presumably they want to discourage smoking - but if they wanted to do that they could place a huge tax on cigarettes, maybe $50 per pack or something. The trouble with that, is that everyone would quit smoking if they had to pay $50+ a pack. So they make the cigarette tax as high as possible without actually discouraging smoking, to maximize profits.
If you want the government to actually discourage behavior, the last thing you want the government to do is make a profit from that behavior. That is why all the brothel owners in Nevada are trying to get the state to pass a special extra-high prostitution tax - they know that once the government gets used to having that money, they won't want to give it up and therefore prostitution will always remain legal! The best way to make sure something will last forever is to give the government a cut of the profits!