This idea is a spin off of Shafi's bill for parking instead of fines. To summarize Shafi's idea, instead of sending parking fines, send a bill. I see some flaws with that idea but it brings up some great ideas for improvements, such as the ability to park your car even though you don't have quarters on you.
Instead of having to put money into meters, why not have a debit system to pay. Perhaps an E-ZPass type system could be used where you swipe your card or pass and then you are billed for the time used. The meter would still regulate time limits but it would allow people to park without getting change and it would also save municipalities on salaries for the people who collect the change from the meters.
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AFAIK, the purpose of metering and fines, is to discourage long term parking. What could be done is have fines built into rates over say, 3 hours, EG, $0.25/hr under 3 hours,, $5/hr after, plus a fine of $10 or so.
re: saving on municipality payroll, coin collectors could be eliminated, but would need to be replaced by people to service the more complex card/pass readers so you're hiring someone with a higher skill set/training (read payscale) that might not work as often. It might just balance out but I suspect it would cost much more for the city to eliminate need for coins. just remember to carry some coins in your car and save the city and yourself $$$$$! I'm all for inventions that save people time and effort but not for the effort of plain old thinking.
Classicsat, what is AFAIK?
In Redwood City, California, they have parking meters that take debit cards. They started installing them several months ago.
The public library's parking lot here uses an attendant to collect the parking cost on exit. Free for the first hour, $0.25 for one hour, and it more or less doubles per hour. Parking for the whole day would run $17--to discourage employees in nearby buildings from using it as all-day parking.
I think this is an excellent idea. Pete Sutliff suggested that it might cost more to repair, but that is unlikely. A card reader is actually less likely to fail than a coin operated device because the coin counter has more moving parts. And replacing a card reading head is simple, you just take it out and put in a new one. Maybe two screws and a plug, that's it. The rest of the electronics would be pretty much the same as the coin operated type.
A card reading meter could be designed so that you could cancel it when you leave, so it will only charge you for the time you were actually there. When you swipe your card, it would automatically set the meter for a long time, maybe 4 or 8 hours(the time could be determined based on the location of the meter). Then, when you leave, you reswipe your card and it stops the meter. You have to reswipe to cancel so that no joker can just walk by and cancel your meter so you'll get you a ticket. With this system, you don't have to try to guess how long you'll stay or have to run back to your car to add more coins. You also won't get over-charged if your stay is a lot shorter than you expected.
Ideally, the meter could take either cards or coins, but it would be cheaper to eliminate the coins so no one will have to collect them.