I can’t imagine this will work. I really don’t see myself, or anybody else, bothering to text every car owner when I see that their meter is going to expire - maybe in some small communities, I suppose, but not in SF.
As to Santa Cruz, it was illegal, but bad press over a person who fed meters led the law to be changed:
Biography Mister Twister, aka Cory L. McDonald, grew up
in Santa Cruz, and started performing as a clown at the age of 10. As
an adult he performed on the streets of Santa Cruz for many years. He
gained national celebrity when he started feeding expired parking
meters. When ticketed, and nearly arrested for this, he protested. The
case went to the city council, who all put on clown noses and “honked”
the law out of existence, presenting him with his very own parking meter
https://localwiki.org/santacruz/Mr_Twister_the_Clown
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19951027&id=wTodAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EaYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5284,8306628&hl=en
I don’t know if the law has been changed back…
I wonder how they word such a law? Destruction of evidence?
I loved the bit about the guy being represented “pro Bozo”.
This wouldn’t work in Vancouver where a sizable fraction of people use their smart phone (to book time) rather than the meter. Walking past you wouldn’t know as the meter appears to be expired. I love this hi-tech system as (i) I no longer have to carry coins and (ii) I can easily add time from afar.
From what I can see in 20 minutes of googling, those ordinances actually existing seem more the exception than the rule–at least it’s hard to find many localities where they’re cited as being on the books, regardless of what the meter reader person claims. (The clown incident Skeptic listed above seems to be one of those exceptions, though a shortly lived one as it was removed as soon as that clown tested it.)
Laws against staying past the posted parking time (ie, 2 hour limit) are common, though, and often conflated with the supposed laws against putting coins in other people’s meters, but the latter seems much rarer. And… I didn’t see any evidence of such an ordinance actually being used to convict or fine anyone. (Though there ARE several cases where the Good Samaritan harassed, intimidated or otherwise interfered with the annoyed meter person and got in trouble for it, and the incident incorrectly gets reported as “Good Samaritan arrested for feeding other people’s meters”).
In any case, such a law sounds like unconstitutional bullshit to me. I should be able to put a quarter in any public meter I please.
It reminds me of an attempt in Winnipeg? a few years back to turn this into a business. This kid had the idea of going around to near expired parked cars and feeding in a few coins and leaving a little envelope asking for reimbursement (I can’t remember how much but it was a reasonable sum but much less than the parking ticket). Anyway the city put a stop to it quickly by declaring it illegal. Not sure it would have worked but. I suppose the app might be more useful if it can just be a timer and 5 minutes before expiry you can just pay the meter by phone (I know this should be possible as the parking meters here in Vancouver are setup for phone payment though I haven’t used it). Seems like that would be more useful than depending on good samaritans.
Tixxii users use license plate numbers of vehicles to contact the vehicle owners.
I do not want to give a bunch of third party companies my license plate number. How long before police departments are requiring access to find wanted cars?
This seems like one of those things that’s nice and helpful and friendly, and also collects a ton of very sensitive data about you that becomes the real business model.
I can’t believe someone hasn’t used license plate identifiers to create a social network/dating app before.
Well, that company’s founder sounds creepolicious. Nevertheless, my mum had her name on a vanity plate for many many a year, and I’d expect it would feel perfectly natural to a sizable number of folks who are car obsessed.
In a totally unrelated topic, I wonder if Donald has vanity plates on that Mercury?
Illegal Random Act of Kindness? I don’t think there is such a law, nor a half-way reasonable judge that wouldn’t throw such a complaint out of court. But a well motivated cop will get you in a word fight and then bust you for that, aka “obstruction of justice” or similar totalitarian bullshit.
Hackaday published a much more elegant solution:
good to know as I live in Vancouver and have wondered about this, but then I thought that paying for successive parking times was not allowed before. Also if paying with coins, you need a lot of them nowadays since a quarter will give you barely 10 minutes or something.
I have this app. It’s called Clock – use the (countdown) Alarm feature – and it works great!
Your problem is that you own a wanted car. Go buy one that’s legit.
I once got a parking ticket on a Saturday in Corvallis, Oregon in front of a coffee house. I only remember it because my wife and I had joked about a sign over the bar while we sipped our coffees that said “Meter Maids eat their young.”
I got a ticket in downtown Anchorage on a Sunday morning in front of a coffee shop also. Damn fine was close to $90 bucks by the time it caught up to me from the rental car place.
Bastards!
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