Bye-Bye, Parking Meter

How soon before it's here on Long Island?

Meter is ticking on parking meter's fate
Internet system will let drivers reserve, pay for space with cell phone
By Erik N. Nelson

SAN FRANCISCO — Parking meters are so 1920s.
That's what U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters told a crowd of journalists Tuesday just off Van Ness Street after buying a little paper ticket from a newfangled meter that controls an entire block of parking spaces.

"Meter technology has remained unchanged since — can you believe this — the 1920s, when vehicle travel was a relatively new activity in American life," Peters said. "Back then, the early parking meter concept wasn't too much different from parking during the last turn of the century, when travelerswould tie up at a hitching post and throw a coin to the stablehand to watch their horse."

But, now the stablehand is artificial intelligence, the hitching post is wireless Internet parking, and the days of trolling for a parking space are, in theory, numbered.

All the well-equipped motorist will need to do is call up the parking system on a cell phone or hand-held computer, and the system will show where the empty spaces are.

A few clicks later and the space is reserved and waiting for the driver to arrive.

Payment will work the same way, and then some.

The parking meter would text the motorist's cell phone with a warning, and instead of having to sprint to the meter, the overdue parker can pay via cell phone, too.