By Keely Grasser
If Coun. Rick Chiarelli has his way, Ottawa’s streets could soon be lined with a new breed of sensor-based parking meters that “know” when someone is parked illegally.
The meters send a signal to bylaw officers if a car is still parked when the time runs out, letting officers track down offenders easily, without patrolling the streets.
“We would require fewer parking control officers and it would provide more complete enforcement and could keep traffic circulating downtown properly,” Chiarelli says.
That doesn’t mean all parking officers would lose their jobs. “Most of them would be integrated into other parts of bylaw services,” he says, “or be moved into other city jobs.”
The new meters would result in more tickets, but they also offer more convenience. For example, they accept credit cards. If motorists are running late, they can text the system from their cell phone or BlackBerry and top up the meter with their credit card, Chiarelli says.
“I may present it to (city) council in a number of months.”
Other cities are interested in updating their parking systems, including Vancouver, which is running a pilot project with Photo Violations Technologies. The Vancouver-based company makes the Photo Violation Meter (PVM). It is a combination of sensor, photograph and wireless technology.
If a car pulls away from an expired meter, it photographs the license plate, then transmits the image to bylaw services. A ticket is mailed to the car’s owner.
The PVM offers convenience as well, says company president Fred Mitschele. The meters take coin, credit and debit. There’s also a “grace period,” where motorists can pay the extra money when they return to an expired meter.
“It returns fairness to the industry,” he says. Only people purposely avoiding paying will get tickets.
“Generally,” Mitschele says, “people are honest and they will pay for parking.” The idea was a response to frustration he felt when stuck with tickets because he didn’t have enough change or was running late.
So far, the response to the Vancouver project has been positive, Mitschele says. The company got a lot of attention as they installed the meters.
“When they (passing people) saw the cameras, they were like ‘ugh!’ ” he says, adding that the response was enthusiastic after they explained the convenient features.
The company has a patent on the photo-based technology. There are several other companies manufacturing sensor-based meters. Chiarelli wouldn’t say which company the city might buy the new meters from. However, he said they wouldn’t use the photography feature.
“They’re not very reliable and have a high capital costs,” he comments.
“We have photo red light cameras. At intersections, we’re lucky if we get between three and five (tickets) a day.” The photos aren’t always clear, he says.
Even so, Mitschele says interest in his project is great, with media coverage from across Canada, the United States, and Europe.
Other Canadian cities have already adopted high-tech parking strategies. In Montreal, drivers pay at a central meter and enter their parking spot number. There’s no need to put a ticket on the dashboard, and parking enforcement scans the meter to see what spots have been paid for. Drivers in Saskatoon can pay with their cell phones as part of a test project that started in October.