One of the first technological advancements of 2011 has come to regular consumers: the Smart Meter. The city of San Francisco, CA (News - Alert) has officially begun the process of installing 5,000 ‘smart’ parking meters throughout the city which will take credit cards as well as operate sensors that indicate when a car is parked in a particular spot.
With a goal date of the end of March, the project will effectively move San Francisco away from the coin-only meters which hamper drivers’ parking abilities and deter visitors to downtown areas. The state-of-the-art meters will enable residents and tourists to navigate the city more easily while allowing the city administration to monitor traffic flow.
According to Nathaniel Ford, executive director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the long-term goal is to influence how many people park in a certain area at a certain time of day so as to maintain 15 percent of spaces in a given neighborhood free. The $25 million project is also supposedly going to reduce car congestion and car emissions.
Less traffic and fewer toxins in the air? Sounds great! Except for a few potential gliches including the fact that a ‘smart’ meter can potentially take up to 30 seconds to process a credit card.
Funded by a federal grant, the project ultimately aims to reduce traffic, for which San Francisco is notorious. The new meters and pay stations are programmed to send signals from multiple spots to the SFMTA in real time so the agency can better grasp the traffic patterns of the city. The city also plans on issuing a smartphone application for drivers similar to its bus-arrival application that will provide information about the availability of parking spaces throughout the city.
The city may also be able to collect revenue after the project is completed by charging more for parking at certain times of day in busy sections of town. The meters will also allow drivers to pay from their smartphones from the office or a local business so they don’t have to run out to their car to refill the meters.
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Juliana Kenny graduated from the University of Connecticut with a double degree in English and French. After managing a small company for two years, she joined TMC as a Web Editor for TMCnet. Juliana currently focuses on the call center and CRM industries, but she also writes about cloud telephony and network gear including softswitches.
Edited by Juliana Kenny