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Comment by PixelB | Hacker News Reader

This completely depends on where you are located. In NYC there are many, many areas with unclear signs or unclear rules that not everyone knows, and are ticketed because of this. In addition, some departments are simply corrupt.

For example: Seaside Heights, NJ.

A few years back my mom went to the shore and parked in a metered parking area. She put in 2 hours worth of time and went to the beach. She came back 1 1/2 hours later, and the meter was expired with a ticket waiting on her car. She fought the ticket and found out that the meters were broken and running too fast, and the parking officials knew about it.. but continued to write tickets. Their justification was that "All people have to do is dispute the ticket and we will drop the charges." but how many people simply pay tickets without fighting them because of a lack of time? Scumbags.

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You have actual timers for each parking space?

I haven't seen any if those in ~30 years. All parking here in Sweden give you a paper reciept with the expiration time to place in your windshield.

Welcome to USA. Why would they replace them when they work just fine, from their perspective. And even when they don't work properly, it's you that pays the price not them.

It varies by jurisdiction. For example, downtown San Mateo has hose tickets you describe while Burlingsme has individual meters, and they are basically adjacent to each other.

Copenhagen is right now moving to a fully digital model: you enter your license plate in the machine or some online app. The people checking the parking have presumably some kind of license plate scanner.

The online app component seems to have been outsourced and thus has slightly different price structure; it also allows you to extend parking remotely.

In Abu Dhabi, UAE you have the option to use either. When you park, you just send an SMS with your license plate and the number of hours. That amount is deducted from your account, which should be created beforehand.

I love dumb-phone solutions to smart-phone apps.

Yeah, a simple solution to a simple problem, and guarantees maximum reach in the process.

Is this state-wide? How does the system know which lot you're parked in?

There are only two rates, so you include which type in the SMS. Location is not needed; the parking officers just check cars using a tablet to see if they have the right to park there.

It's implemented in Abu Dhabi city proper. I believe Dubai has the traditional ticket-based system only.

My city (Cincinnati, Ohio) is also moving an app-based street parking model. You pay via phone app and don't have to worry about carrying quarters. There's a petty credit card surcharge of like $0.25, but it's understandable given the low amount of the transaction.

The biggest downside to our system is paying via app doesn't reflect on the meter so you see "EXPIRED" making you feel a little uncomfortable about the whole thing. I wonder if they just don't have a way in the infrastructure to update meters over the web.

NYC has mostly moved to a digital system where you can pay with a credit/debit card and get a paper receipt to put on your windshield.

In many smaller cities, however, they still have old meters that take coins and have a timer. There is really no incentive for small towns to upgrade their infrastructure, as requiring coins probably means they will be able to write more tickets, as people increasingly carry less cash.

There are parking lots near me in Massachusetts where to pay for a day's parking you have to go up to a board, find the slot that corresponds to the parking space you have parked in, and you fold up a banknote and shove it in the slot.

Most U.S. cities still use individual timer meters, yes.

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