parking spaces that call the cops

By: Drivers.com staff

Date: Saturday, 05. January 2013

In the good old days, parking was free and you felt that if you owned a car it was your right. Those days are gone. We face a future of total parking control.

In other words, the technology is already available to monitor all parking spaces all the time. No more sneaking a little time while you dash into a shop (�I was only gone a few minutes officer!�), or taking a chance you won�t get caught because it�s raining and the parking control officer probably won�t catch you.

Now a number of local councils in France have installed a SmartMeter, a sensoring system that detects the presence of vehicles, links that information to a parking payment system, and even connects it to parking enforcement authorities.

In one town on the outskirts of Paris, motorists are allowed 20 minutes of free parking. If they stay longer, a message is sent to a police control room. Drivers are given about 15 minutes grace period and then the information is texted to nearby police officers who can ticket the offending vehicle.

Apparently , local shops and other businesses are happy with the system because it maintains parking turnover and allows more customers to access them.

Claude Zandona, managing director of Technolia, the company which developed the system, envisions variations of the system which would enable drivers to pay for parking using a personal identification number incorporated into their cell phones.

Drivers would get a text message when their time is up and perhaps even get a chance to pay for more time before being fined.

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