Big Brother-style parking meters coming to Melbourne

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 20 April 2011 18:51

Opinion and Analysis

The state of surveillance technologies and their deployment into everyday life continues its onward march, with new 'in-ground' parking sensors coming to Melbourne City Council streets from July which alert the closest inspector once you're five minutes over the limit.

If you're over the limit in a parking spot, and the parking inspector hasn't come by yet, should a machine be able to alert the closest parking inspector so they can make it to your car post haste to issue a ticket?

The answer seems to be an absolute yes, for the technology is coming soon to the residents and ratepayers of the Melbourne City Council.

It looks like the days of hoping you might just make it back to your car without a ticket even though you're later than expected will come to come to an end wherever the in-ground sensors are installed, and will make presumably make parking inspectors spectacularly efficient. 

It makes you wonder when the parking meter will simply fine you on its own, without any assistance from a parking inspector, although we're not there yet.

Of course, if you have gone over your parking limit, a parking inspector is nearby and you're not there, you'll get a ticket today.

However this new system is clever in that it lets parking inspectors know exactly where to find cars that have overstayed their limit, and then the race is on for the inspector to get there and fine the infringer before the car's owner comes back and drives away.

The Age reports that the Melbourne City Council's new in-ground parking system, coming in July, will alert the closest parking inspector once you've overstayed your parking limit by 5 minutes.

Naturally, residents aren't too happy, saying in an ABC report that it's just another cash grab.

 

Continued, please read on.