Peter Wilson
Sun
MARK VAN MANEN/VANCOUVER SUN Company president Fred Mitschele displays his new high-tech parking meter, which he has on display near UBC.
Motorist-friendly, designed-in-B.C. parking meters that make it easy to pay fees and fines and allow drivers to top up expired meters instead of facing a ticket could start appearing soon in cities across Canada.
Instead of having to hunt their pockets for coins, users of the new Photo Violation Meter (PVM) could pay with credit cards, debit cards and even cellphones
And the meters, from Vancouver-based Photo Violations Technology Corp., would allow for grace periods — say 15 or 30 minutes — so that when drivers arrive back at the meter they can simply pay for the extra time with another swipe of the credit card.
But they’ll also photograph your licence plate if you try to drive off without paying for that extra time.
“I was tired of parking my car and never having enough change to pay into the parking meter and always getting a ticket because I was running late,” said company president Fred Mitschele, a parking industry veteran who believes the PVMs, because of their efficiency, will help keep parking rates low.
He’s particularly proud of the grace-period concept.
“Of course, if you were to drive away from that meter without paying for your extra time the city would issue you a ticket on that,” said Mitschele.
Motorists who exceed the grace period can pay their fines right at the meter, probably at a reduced rate.
Not only that, but the meters will refuse to operate if a driver tries to pay during rush hour when parking is prohibited.
“If there’s just five minutes left, then the meter will return your money and ask you if you want to pay for the five minutes before parking is prohibited,” said Mitschele.
That way, he said, users can avoid being towed because the meter will have warned them.
Despite all these benefits for motorists, he adds, it’s not just drivers who will welcome the meters — which are going to be tested in the Lower Mainland in January, although Mitschele would not say where.
Municipalities will be happy too, because the PVM has built-in sensors to detect vehicles arriving and departing parking spaces, a camera to take photos of the licence plates of scofflaws and wireless capability that immediately sends out information on overtime parking violations.
Mitschele — who has been a Canadian regional vice-president for Diamond Parking Ltd., and founded another Vancouver-based meter firm, Digital Pioneer Technologies Corp. — said that municipalities do make money from fines, but they’d rather make sure that everything works smoothly.
“The bottom line is they just want to make sure that everyone will pay,” said Mitschele. “And generally people do want to pay.
“They’re not purposely not paying to get a violation. The inconvenience of not having enough change has always been a parking problem.”
The PVMs will not only track violators, but they will be cleared the minute the car occupying the space drives away.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005