New parking 'meter'

bopuc    says:

These are retarded. On so many levels.
You point out the first one. The other day I had to cross a busy street 4 times in the rain to complete the operation: cross once to get to the pay-station, cross again cause I forgot to check my spot number, cross again to return to pay-station, cross again to put ticket on dashboard (also requiring me to lock and unlock my car twice)

- You get a ticket and place it on your dashboard. This inconveniences the meter maids. They used to have little blinking LEDs or blinking displays they could see fromt heir cars. Now they have to get out and walk around. They are hard enough to deal with, we don't want them even more aggro.

- No way to find a spot where the previous parker understayed/overpayed. Good for the money grubbers, bad for the people.

This was very very obviously a money-grab by the city.

Also, did you notice? While our street totally disintegrate and politicians make excuses, they went and replaced all the intersection light lightbulbs/reflectors? They are about twice as bright now. Total waste of money.

I am SO bitter. ;)
Posted 55 months ago. ( permalink )

sven [deleted] says:

Actually,

cross once to get to the pay-station.

You can pay for any parking meter at any pay station; there's almost always on on the way to/from where you're going.

You get a ticket and place it on your dashboard. This inconveniences the meter maids.

No, you don't have to put the ticket on your dash; it's just a receipt. the meters have built-in GPRS wireless to communicate with devices in the meter maids cars (and eachother, actually - they actually act as repeater stations for one another, bouncing the GPRS signal to and fro).

No way to find a spot where the previous parker understayed/overpayed. Good for the money grubbers, bad for the people.

Agreed, this sucks hard.
Then again, the meters do run embedded Linux, so I'll let it slide... :p
Posted 55 months ago. ( permalink )

bopuc    says:

If that's the case, it should be possible to develop a Java app for one's cellphone which checks how much "time" a "spot" has left... :)

Thnx for the info Steven.
Posted 55 months ago. ( permalink )

blork    says:

Another sucky thing is that the clock resets to zero as soon as you add money. So let's say you still have 30 minutes left on the meter and you want an hour--adding 30 minutes worth of money will give you...30 minutes.

As soon as it detects more money going in, it erases any balance. That really blows.
Posted 55 months ago. ( permalink )

Ed Bilodeau says:

I had heard somewhere that the city was also upset that some people would show up at a parking place and find time still on the meter, and so wouldn't have to pay. Not sure how true that is, or if it was just someone smearing the city. Sure sounds like the city, though. Bureaucrats...
Posted 55 months ago. ( permalink )

bopuc    says:

blork: aaaargh!
ed: some people? do you drive? ever parked downtown/where there are meters? Given the choice, I'll *always* find the spot where the meter still has time on it... ;) It is very clearly a cash grab. :(
Posted 55 months ago. ( permalink )

Ed Bilodeau says:

No, I don't drive... Don't even have a licence! :)
Posted 55 months ago. ( permalink )

sven [deleted] says:

Some juicy tidbits:

- The meters run a 2.4.19 Linux kernel, and are networked wirelessly via GPRS (a kind of cell phone protocol). A low-powered ARM processor and a large reserve battery enable the stations to run on solar power, separate from both electrical and telephone grids.



- Meter maids can cruise for violators using ruggedized Intermec handheld devices inside their vehicles. The devices have built-in city maps on which paid spots are green and unpaid spots are red.



- "8D is prepared to offer several features not included in the Montreal roll-out, including debit card payments, payment via secure Web page, and more."

Stolen from: Linux Devices.

Also, here's the Montreal-based company responsible: www.8d.com/
Posted 55 months ago. ( permalink )

Ed Bilodeau says:

Here's an "illegal" remix of my pic :P

www.flickr.com/photos/bopuc/18566438/
Posted 55 months ago. ( permalink )

bopuc    says:

Oh damn... I am sorry... I assumed that you CC, and not C, your pictures here... my apologies. Shall I remove it? :(

;)
Posted 55 months ago. ( permalink )

Ed Bilodeau says:

No, that's fine. I only noticed it after the fact. I was actually more interested in linking the photo posts so that people following one thread could see the other.

Oh wait, I guess that's what the tags are supposed to be for! :)
Posted 55 months ago. ( permalink )

bopuc    says:

Hehehe.. well actually, since there is no other way to /define/ relationships between photos, linking in the comments is the next best thing. :)
Posted 55 months ago. ( permalink )