January 12, 2009
High Tech Parking Meters Alert Police via Text Message
We've heard of parking meters that let car owners know when the meter has expired, but now, thanks to the French, parking meters can snitch on drivers who stay longer than they're allowed by sending text messages to the cops. Switched reports.
The smart meters, developed by engineering firm Technolia, detect when a car is parked in a space through the use of a magnetic field. In the 60 towns employing these new meters in France, the meters allow each driver 20 minutes of parking near shopping areas in the hopes of creating quick turnover. Once that expires, the meter waits 15 minutes before texting the police.
Related m-parking schemes:
-- SMS warnings save motorists' parking fines in Sydney - A new range of meters installed across Sydney, will from now onwards inform vehicle owners about their
parking time limit on SMS and save them from paying heavy fines. (March 2005)
-- UC gets m-parking - The University of California-Santa Barbara with help from IBM, overhauled its parking system, enabling mobile users to pay for their parking meters with their cell phones. (February 2005)
-- Sun-powered parking meters for city - Solar-powered parking meters capable of accepting credit cards and payment via mobile phone are to be installed in central Sydney. (February 2005)
-- M-Parking in Vienna The Austrian capital has just completed its first year of allowing residents to pay for any of its 126,000 short-term parking spaces by mobile phone, under what it calls its M-Parking system (October 2004).
-- Parking Fees to Be Paid by SMS -Sofia municipality (Bulgaria) will introduce a new "Pay and display" parking fee system (October 2004)
-- Austrians purchase car-parking tickets by mobile phones - About 50,000 drivers are now purchasing their car-parking tickets by mobile phone and SMS in Vienna and five other cities in Austria. "M-parking" was introduced a year ago by German IT services provider Siemens Business Services and mobile operator Mobilkom. (October 2004) Austria.
-- mParking - The first scheme in the UK which allows drivers to pay for parking by mobile phone has been launched in Scotland (October 2003).
-- Sydney Council today launched its new mobile phone payment parking system, which not only allows motorists to pay for metered parking using their mobile phone - but also lets them know via SMS that their meter is due to expire. (March 19, 2004)
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2009/01/022302.htm