December 20th, 2005

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Vancouver
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Camera-Enabled Parking Meters and the Genius of Disc Parking

On the six o’clock news tonight, I caught a piece on the implementation of a new, smarter parking meter in Vancouver. It’s called the Photo Violation Meter (from the ingeniously named company, Photo Violation Technologies). The meters have a camera which photographs your license plate and sensors that ensure you pay (or are subsequently ticketed if you don’t). These are the benefits that the site lists for its fancy new meter:

» Fully-automated
» User-friendly
» Accepts coins, credit cards or debit cards
» Stress-free and fair
» Allows expired-payment options
» Wireless and self-auditing
» Enforces parking regulations with photo ticketing
» Resets itself when a vehicle leaves
» Solar-powered and environmentally friendly
» Secure online alarm system
» Auto-towing notification
» Wireless servicing alerts
» Additional wireless support products include a handheld unit and printer

These are benefits for the municipality. The new meters mean enforced payment and fewer staff.

What are the benefits to the citizen? If you ask me, I’d rather have the option to take my chances than the option to pay by credit card. I’d also imagine these meters prevent repeatedly plugging the meter. Finally, there’s no longer a chance of a free ride by pulling into a recently-vacated spot with time left on the meter. It sounds like it’s a net loss for the average consumer.

I’m not an economist, so I can’t say whether the increased revenue for the city will offset the purchase and maintenance costs, combined with the additional impact of making a bunch of meter readers redundant.

The city of Vancouver is ignoring a better system. Ireland has a ‘disc parking’ system. They basically apply the parkade model to the street. Each block has a single machine where you buy a ticket or ‘disc’. You can pay by any means you prefer, and the cars are monitored by bylaw officers in the same fashion.

What’s the genius part? Parking space sizes aren’t fixed. So, you can fit as many cars as possible on a given block. This is a crucial advantage in a city where the amount of cars has doubled in the past decade. In our system, a Smart car essentially takes up the same amount of space as a Hummer. In their system, the block can hold 4 Hummers, 9 Minis or 12 Smart cars (or whatever).

Comments: 8 Responses so far

Matt
December 20th, 2005
10:00 pm

Where have I seen this before?

Oh. The Delicate Art of Parking. That’s right. . . .

[Reply]

Anonymous
December 21st, 2005
9:15 am

Does a big Hummer pay more than a Smart car on the Irish system?

Lisa

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donna
December 21st, 2005
10:11 am

and 32 motorcycles!

On the upside, they already allow motorcycles to share spots with other vehicles. or, 90% of the time, they’ll just ignore it all together if you park in a triangle at the end of the street.

[Reply]

Darren
December 21st, 2005
11:00 am

Anonymous: Coincidentally, I was just talking to an Irish friend of mine. I asked, and no, unfortunately, there are no restrictions on size. I told him to get talking to his civic leaders about amending that issue.

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Sandra
March 10th, 2006
12:51 pm

I’d be ok with losing the “free parking” from a recently vacated spot if it meant that I was billed “by the minute” and never left any free parking behind for anyone else either.

[Reply]

Breanna
September 15th, 2006
11:37 am

Thanks for posting this. The information will really help when I began to do my project on parkig meters, first invented by Carlton Cole Magee.

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Meeting Got Canceled
August 17th, 2007
10:42 am

[...] this legal? I sometimes see motorcycles doing this, so it is kosher for a Smart Car? I’ve written before about the inferiority of parking meters, and this is a great approach to fitting more cars onto a [...]

steven
November 8th, 2008
10:27 am

Not to sound like a vandal but couldn’t you just pull up and jam a piece of gum into the camera lens and then walk away with free parking? I mean not that I would do it on regular basis bt given the taxation in the country and the growing divide between the haves and have nots it does come to mind. Governments should stp thinking of us as consumers and get back to thinking about us a citizens..who might just take ideas like this as a monetary injustice.

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