Hi-Tech approach to parking meters

Aug 16, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,

Permit me to pen my bit on the Parking Meter fiasco. My greatest fear is we’ll get ourselves in a Gulliver position; entangled with no hope of freeing ourselves from a binding contract with machines which will soon be outdated or, at the very least, machines that malfunction too often. The problem has already been identified; we have too many vehicles requiring parking in the vicinity of downtown where most businesses are clustered. The immediate solution seems to be to peep over at the so-called developed countries to see what they’re doing with regards to solving this particular problem. Instead of looking overseas how about looking right here for a solution.
Guyanese, in my opinion, are some of the most resourceful people in this part of the solar system. And I do not say this lightly. Why the government does not sponsor a competition with a two-million-dollar prize to the person coming up with the best idea in lieu of knotting oneself to an expensive parking meter contract? At the risk of being labeled frivolous, if one hangs around beer gardens long enough listening to drinking buddies, one can pick up quite a bit of intelligent suggestions which the government usually pay millions to “think-tanks” to come up with. Some of these fellows, stimulated by alcohol no doubt, are likely to come up with a solution that is practical and prove to be far less expensive than the one currently being considered.
Thinking outside the box, here’s my suggestion. How about a high tech approach? I have the idea but the groundwork has to be done. We create the parking areas but no parking machines; just poles with position identifications. I’m supposing the average driver is in possession of a cell phone. Create an APP where drivers pre-purchase a certain amount of credit. When one parks one uses the APP to insert the pole position and number plate of one’s vehicle. One is also required to use the APP to indicate when one leaves the parking.
Through the APP one’s time of parking is registered at some central location and the appropriate amount deducted from his credit. If one’s credit is too low a warning message is sent to one’s phone. To avoid pranksters, one is required to insert a password to prevent anyone else tampering with the transaction. Minimum patrols are required to ensure no one cheats the system. If a vehicle is found parked at a position when the owner has registered via the APP that he has vacated the spot, his vehicle will be impounded with a fine attached. The same goes for a vehicle parked in a spot and has not registered that it has.CTV cameras are set up in parking areas as a “second eye” to ensure no one is short-circuiting the system (a common hobby of us, Guyanese).
I’m not aware of this system being used in any other country but, not being the brightest bulb in my family, if I can come up with it I suppose others can too. We do not have to inherit every system from abroad. We can come up with our own. Consider this the first application for the proposed competition for the two-million-dollar prize. And I haven’t even had a beer for the day as yet. Imagine the fountain of intelligent suggestions out there waiting for some motivation like the proposed prize money. Forget parking meters from abroad. We can get this done.
M. Alves

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Hi-Tech approach to parking meters

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