Cell phones... is there anything they cant do?

[CoolBreeze]

Estonia brings E-Parking to America

NOW! Innovations will kick up a mobile parking service in Decatur Georgia on October 20.

In cooperation with US company Streetsmart Technology the company offers an option which is unique in the world.

It’s possible to pay with cell phone by calling and following automatic orders. Information about payment will immediately get to parking meter, which will start just as if you were paying with coins. In the asphalt under parking places are detectors, which are linked with parking meter and all parking place guards will receive that information in real time to control whether you have paid for parking.

Decatur a small city in Georgia, (which has about 17 000 residents). At first, 100 parking places will be in the system.

In Estonia the mobile parking service has been in use as of 1st July 2000 and this service has been a major success: over 40 per cent of parking fees payments are made by using mobile telephones.

EMT mobile parking service was among the 4 nominees in the category of most innovative product at GSM Association World Congress 2001 and earned the title of "Deed of the year" from the Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunication Companies.

[Dave Loudin]

I saw similar meters ("pay by phone" stickers on them) at VCU in Richmond this weekend.

[Lester]

I so want to move to Estonia.

[Jet Black]

Wow, a system of embedding sensors in the pavement connected to electronic transmitters connected to centralized computer control connected to automatic cell phone transmer/receievers, that can be addressed by connecting with your cell phone and your credit card, DOES seem like a lot better system than dropping a quarter into a simple winding mechanism. No doubt the public will be well-served by wire trasnfers of sub-dollar amounts and continous surveillance of every parking space in the city.

[Lester]

That's not the only reason I want to go there.

Besides, I save the quarters to put air in my tires.

[genlock]

Estonia only has six cars, 250,000 parking spaces.
NKVD wants to know where those six cars choose to park.
Trains to Gulag leave daily.
Coolbreeze jumps off bridge.

[Arp2]

Wow, a system of embedding sensors in the pavement connected to electronic transmitters connected to centralized computer control connected to automatic cell phone transmer/receievers, that can be addressed by connecting with your cell phone and your credit card, DOES seem like a lot better system than dropping a quarter into a simple winding mechanism. No doubt the public will be well-served by wire trasnfers of sub-dollar amounts and continous surveillance of every parking space in the city.

Hey...and just think about getting yourself an electric car. Everytime you plug it in, its "smart charger" could report back GPS data about where it's been, when it went, and how fast it went there...and, with biometrics built in, it could report back who went!

[Jet Black]

Great idea, Arp. I'm going to lay me out some real money for one of those super-Green, Government-friendly electric cars.

I'm not worried about the future of the automobile. Obama says he's going to make auto makers build Greener, efficient cars, and he's also going to make them lower the price of same. Problem solved.

[CoolBreeze]

Yea, I think the whole E-Parking business is dumb and expensive myself. The only thing JUST as dumb is to have expensive parking meters at every space. In a lot of Europe and (maybe) at some places in the U.S., there are electronic parking kiosks in the middle of the blocks. There, you can insert any denomination and get a paper to place on your windshield with the time allotted. Naturally, that wouldn't work here because people simply refuse to walk a total of a block if necessary, and meter maids would actually have to walk a beat.

[lastone]

So will your bank charge you a buck and a half for you to put 25 cents in a parking meter?

[David Paleg]

"This is David's phone. He has no bars here at the parking meter because he doesn't have Verizon."

[cgarison]

I saw similar meters ("pay by phone" stickers on them) at VCU in Richmond this weekend.

And you lived to tell the tale of being at the VCU campus without being mugged or violated in some way. Damn. Has Richmond become something less than "Mean Streets?"