Boise Idaho Parking Meters!!

[GlennSprigg]

It seems Boise Idaho are trialing new 'smart' meters.
They have detectors that tell when you have left, and cancel any remaining time when you do!!

https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/fe7303/parking_meters_that_erase_extra_time_when_it/

[Brumby]

How to increase revenue....

The vacating driver has already written off the unused time, so why not have the remaining time wiped?  It's not as if they are going to be out of pocket.  It also means that any new driver looking for a parking spot will know every meter will have no time left.

[m98]

Parking meters are still a thing? But really, the same applies with regular parking tickets. Once you drive away prematurely, nobody can use the remaining time on your ticket.

[Stray Electron]

Parking meters are still a thing?

  Yes, they are in many cities in the US.  OTOH the CLUELESS politicians that run the cities can't understand why people refuse to shop and live in areas with parking meters and then wonder why their businesses are dying or are leaving and moving to areas that don't have meters.

   The small town that I lived in in the early 1960s installed parking meters and there was immediate drop in business and within two years three shopping centers opened outside of the city. Within about 8 years, the down town area was a ghost town and after about 12 years they finally removed the meters. But by then it was too late and ALL of the businesses had left and a NICE new mall had been built well outside of town. That mall has done so well that most of the restaurants, car dealership and other independent businesses have all moved to that area. Since then the town has converted the main downtown street into a pedestrian mall (whatever the F that is!) with no cars allowed in an attempt to draw shoppers (but there are no stores to shop in!) which just further drove people away and is giving all kinds of grants to small business to locate there but now no one cares and no one goes there and every small business that moved there has failed.   They started an annual art show, chili cookoff and some other events downtown that were a success for a while but then every other city did the same so those have all dwindled.  The latest gimmick in an annual bike week and it does well, but it only lasts one week of the year and in addition the residents HATE because it completely snarls traffic for miles around. Things are so bad that even the LARGE churches that used to be downtown are failing and the church that I grew up in now has less than 100 members and will very likely be foreclosed on in the very near future.

   Parking meters are a sure-fire way of driving customers and business away from an area.

[T3sl4co1l]

The small town that I lived in in the early 1960s installed parking meters and there was immediate drop in business and within two years three shopping centers opened outside of the city. Within about 8 years, the down town area was a ghost town and after about 12 years they finally removed the meters. But by then it was too late and ALL of the businesses had left and a NICE new mall had been built well outside of town.

A cynical, corporate-driven interpretation of this implies that the big box stores (or the realtors developing the new area, or owning the mall) got exactly what they wanted (presumably they lobbied civic gov't to push this), while later council/mayor/exec people floundered at trying to revitalize the downtown area, either not trying to understand the economics of the situation, or were again lobbied to concentrate on other things (appearances?) instead of what actually matters.  The waste of cash further weakening the city's position, and maintaining corporate leverage over them.

Whether any of that is true... you'd have to dig through city meeting records I guess.

Tim

[SiliconWizard]

Parking meters are still a thing? But really, the same applies with regular parking tickets. Once you drive away prematurely, nobody can use the remaining time on your ticket.

Well, individual meters have mostly disappeared over here (and in many european countries I have visited), but so far, whether people have paid must still be controlled manually. In some cities, this is actually helped with surveillance cameras, but there's still not automated fining for parking... and I'm not surprised authorities (and companies selling this shit) are working on that to lower operating costs.