So I just got back from Rehobeth Beach where they have these new electronic parking meter stations instead of the old coin operated meters. They look something like this: In the old days (see my Good Old Days post, which I'll get back to as soon as I get around to it) there was a meter at each parking spot. And they looked like this: You locked your car stuck a nickel, dime or quarter into the slot, twisted the knob thingy and the time allotted was shown on the dial. Simple, direct, and you were on your way. Now here's how the new improved meters work. You park your car, lock it, then head down the street looking for a parking meter station. Usually it's about a half a block away, in the other direction from which you are walking. You find it and then find you need a credit card. For some reason hard cash isn't good enough, the town fathers need to know you have a good credit rating or they won't let you park in their town and give them any money unless you use that card. Then you realize you have to enter the license plate number of your car, which of course you don't know. So back to the car to read the license plate. Which you do, then you turn around, take two steps and realize you forgot the number. So you read it again, with the full intention of remembering it for at least the half a block walk. Halfway back to the meter station you start to wonder if you remember the number correctly. Was it a 2 or a Z? Back to the car and it dawns on you that this could lead to a vicious cycle where you end up wearing out a perfectly good pair of shoes trying to get to that meter station with the number intact. But, being intelligent, even though you can't remember a simple seven digit number, you come up with a solution! Just photograph that plate with your cell phone! Then walk back to the meter station, look at your phone, enter the number, take out your credit card, insert into slot, wait for processing, take paper receipt, march back to your car, unlock it, place receipt on the dashboard in plain view for the meter maid, or drone or whatever, relock your car, and you're on your way! See how better this is then the old way! All you need is a good credit rating, an active credit card, a cell phone, a pair of good walking shoes, the ability to read digital screens in bright sunlight, and a keen sense of direction. Isn't the latest technology wonderful? But that's not what this rant is about. What it's about is the con the city fathers are pulling. See in the old days, with that old meter technology, if you inserted, say two quarters in the meter and got two hours worth of parking at that spot, and you left early, with an hour still registered on the meter, some other lucky Joe, or Jane, could swoop into that spot and get a "free" hours worth of parking. Not free really, someone had paid the fee for that hours worth of occupancy already. But free to them. That was one of the delights of parking meter parking, finding a meter with unused time was like hitting a little mini lottery. But how does the new improved system work? Well on my trip to Rehobeth it cost $6.50 to park for two hours and we got a receipt stamped with the time we had to leave. So if we parked at 5:00 we had to leave by 7:00. All the meter person has to do is look at that time stamp on the receipt laying on the dash to see if we are in violation. (By the way I don't know what convertibles and motorcycles are supposed to do). Now here's the kicker. We only stayed an hour as I don't like boardwalks anyway. So that space we occupied still had a good hours time left on it. We paid for two hours worth of real estate and only used up one hour. But does anyone know that? No. The next person to enter that slot has to pay for an hour worth of parking that we already paid for. The city double dips. It collects twice the amount of money it is entitled to! And that, my friends, is why the old meters are out dated.
Yeah, they are horrible and usually run by third party skimmers. Plus, they expect that you do this every day and "just use the ap". So, you're in a hurry, and now you're fumbling around in the dark trying to download a 3gigabyte ap, then you have to figure out a user name, since your email isn't good enough, figure out a 12 character password with capital letters, reverse video characters, foreign punctuation and a duck emogi. Then you have to translate the reverse logic of the system "if you are not not done not parking and not facing not north nor not east push no pull not 1 but 2 to add not 3 hours but maybe 5.... So, the last time I did this, I got through after making two trips back to find the hidden spot number, then to get my license plate number - ahah!! Got it...."place your receipt on your dashboard as proof of payment"....of course there is no paper left in the machine. There's always some predatory tow jockey circling the block looking for $500 tows - to which, they have zero liability... "come down town to play, shop and eat, it's SO fun....." Nope.
Imagine a world where we could just leave quarters on the sidewalk and then the city would come pick them up. But if you didn't have change, you could leave an IOU note. There's no need for parking meters. It's just a sign of the money and fear driven society we are living in.
No, it's not a sign of fear, it's a lot of private industry that buys every piece of open blacktop it can and hangs a parking price and predatory tow trucks on it. There's a big deal trying to get people to 'go down town', build a new stadium, concert areas - but there's no place to park and you can't really get there by public transport nor is there any park and ride lots in the suburbs. Nope. Nothing is worth that hassle.
Yeah, I got a parking ticket once - the only one I EVER had - from one of those damn machines. A) you can't read the machine in the sun B) the logic and instructions were impossible (I have a master's degree in engineering) C) the payment part was incredibly complex with a long line of people waiting D) no receipt or "thank you, you're all set"...it just went away. I got the ticket because I was one spot over from the one I was supposed to be in, in a half empty lot. $30 lesson on why I don't choose to be an urbanite.
Yeah it kind of sucks, I mean I’m guessing the city knows this or want each individual to pay their share. It’s tough but I prefer to be able to by cc or Apple Pay. It’s just so much more convenient except for LP input.
