The city of Sydney is soon to see a shift in the way people pay for their public parking.
It is reported than 1,000 or more parking meters throughout the CBD will be replaced with new solar powered meters capable of accepting payment via a mobile phone or credit card. The meters will also send an SMS to the motorist warning them that their meter is soon to expire.
North Sydney has experienced these meters where they have become a huge success and more reliable than the old style meters.
Lord Mayor Clover was reported as saying:
"In today’s cashless society, many people do not carry spare change so it makes sense to offer alternative payment methods."
All meters are said to be replaced within 3 months, with 100 of them currently in operation.
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Places in Canada have had this for years.
February 23rd, 2005 at 8:02 am
With SMS???
February 23rd, 2005 at 10:34 am
They put these in Toronto over the last three years and they have dramatically increased revenue- because the meters are not a fixed distance apart they get more cars in; If you leave early the next person does not get “free” time; they were able to initiate different rates and different lengths of allowable stays. Note: it came out that our machines accepted debit cards but since there was no PIN number entered you never got charged.
February 23rd, 2005 at 3:07 pm
That’s really interesting. At one university I attended it was common courtesy to drop change into someones meter if it had expired and you had extra coins. I think this might end things like that. We did it becuase the Uni was charging ridiculous rates for tickets. It actually became an issue near the library where people routinely gathered change from anyone standing around and raced long the meters ahead of the meter maid.
February 24th, 2005 at 9:08 am
I may be interested in buying the cities surplus parking meters. I noticed that the old meters were being replaced by new conventional ones. Please let me know who I may speek with about the purcahse of the old parking meters. Thank you,
Elmer
March 8th, 2005 at 2:15 pm
New parking metres: The interface and design is so user UNFRIENDLY and ugly. I wonder if they ever had done research before they put them into design and productuon. Also the previous ones that were mainly in George street Chinatown were just as bad that were taken out not so long ago. I tend to think they should’ve got it right the second time round.
July 24th, 2005 at 10:59 pm