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I can think of a way. Police could walk around with a hand held license plate scanner, that electronically tracks the general location of the parking space, an

by stale2002 8y ago

I can think of a way. Police could walk around with a hand held license plate scanner, that electronically tracks the general location of the parking space, and the car. I bet this could be done with a phone app, actually.

coderintherye 8y ago
In urban areas the city could even work with local property owners to place video cameras that have enough angle to be able to have a constant view of all the cars that park. Could automate ticketing car owners who overstay. *Not that I wish for this, but it's theoretically possible to implement.
- pfooti 8y ago
  incentivize this by passing 20% of the ticket price back to the property owner
  - dondawest 8y ago
    How do we de-incentivize doing cop’s jobs for them on HN? This is a great idea with one problem: fuck the police.
    - lazyasciiart 8y ago
      Ban parking cars on public property. Then nobody needs to be tracking how long it's there for.
      - dondawest 8y ago
        Fully agreed.
amluto 8y ago
Palo Alto does something like this.
burkaman 8y ago
I know, but that's a little slower, way more expensive, and fails if the battery runs out or the GPS can't connect, or the license plate is too dirty to read. Obviously the chalk method isn't perfect either, but it's close.
- daveFNbuck 8y ago
  There are also a lot of advantages once you automate this via a camera. Now you can put cheap cameras near spots and/or mount the cameras on cars to automate ticketing as police are driving around on other business.
- ricardobeat 8y ago
  That is how parking enforcement works here in the Netherlands. Someone just drives a camera-equipped car around and everything happens automatically - you enter your license plate on the meter so times are known to the minute.
  - perl4ever 8y ago
    There are parking meters in the US city I live in, where you enter your license plate and you don't have to fill an individual meter or display a tag on your dash.
- djmobley 8y ago
  If the license plate is too dirty to read, give them a ticket for that instead. Penalty should be greater than for the parking infraction anyway, otherwise people would dirty their plates deliberately.
nitrogen 8y ago
I think Salt Lake City for one does enforce parking this way.
SllX 8y ago
San Francisco already does. Hell, it might actually be built into the enforcement vehicle (the Interceptors!), but don’t quote me on that part.
rlander 8y ago
My city does this (Florianopolis, Brazil). I can use a smart phone app to start the clock or just let an officer pass by and tag my car. Chalking seems very... rudimentary.
stan_rogers 8y ago
They're not exactly equivalent. Tire-chalking essentially proves that the vehicle didn't move (or that the driver was ridiculously unlucky in that the mark showed up at about the same location). The number/license plate merely shows that the same car is in the same parking spot, so the (legal, if arguably too "letter of the law") approach of vacating the space and parking there again is indistinguishable from overstaying the limit.
- foota 8y ago
  I believe most jurisdictions require you to leave a space for some time before the parking "resets"
  - _archon_ 8y ago
    How would they know that hadn't happened?
    - foota 8y ago
      If you require vehicles to be gone from a certain street for 24 hours, say, before parking there again for a 2 hour spot, and you check it at 1 pm then later at 4 pm, you can conclude the vehicle wasn't gone for 24 hours.

coderintherye 8y ago

In urban areas the city could even work with local property owners to place video cameras that have enough angle to be able to have a constant view of all the cars that park. Could automate ticketing car owners who overstay. *Not that I wish for this, but it's theoretically possible to implement.

pfooti 8y ago
incentivize this by passing 20% of the ticket price back to the property owner
- dondawest 8y ago
  How do we de-incentivize doing cop’s jobs for them on HN? This is a great idea with one problem: fuck the police.
  - lazyasciiart 8y ago
    Ban parking cars on public property. Then nobody needs to be tracking how long it's there for.
    - dondawest 8y ago
      Fully agreed.

amluto 8y ago

Palo Alto does something like this.

burkaman 8y ago

I know, but that's a little slower, way more expensive, and fails if the battery runs out or the GPS can't connect, or the license plate is too dirty to read. Obviously the chalk method isn't perfect either, but it's close.

daveFNbuck 8y ago
There are also a lot of advantages once you automate this via a camera. Now you can put cheap cameras near spots and/or mount the cameras on cars to automate ticketing as police are driving around on other business.
ricardobeat 8y ago
That is how parking enforcement works here in the Netherlands. Someone just drives a camera-equipped car around and everything happens automatically - you enter your license plate on the meter so times are known to the minute.
- perl4ever 8y ago
  There are parking meters in the US city I live in, where you enter your license plate and you don't have to fill an individual meter or display a tag on your dash.
djmobley 8y ago
If the license plate is too dirty to read, give them a ticket for that instead. Penalty should be greater than for the parking infraction anyway, otherwise people would dirty their plates deliberately.

nitrogen 8y ago

I think Salt Lake City for one does enforce parking this way.

SllX 8y ago

San Francisco already does. Hell, it might actually be built into the enforcement vehicle (the Interceptors!), but don’t quote me on that part.

rlander 8y ago

My city does this (Florianopolis, Brazil). I can use a smart phone app to start the clock or just let an officer pass by and tag my car. Chalking seems very... rudimentary.

stan_rogers 8y ago

They're not exactly equivalent. Tire-chalking essentially proves that the vehicle didn't move (or that the driver was ridiculously unlucky in that the mark showed up at about the same location). The number/license plate merely shows that the same car is in the same parking spot, so the (legal, if arguably too "letter of the law") approach of vacating the space and parking there again is indistinguishable from overstaying the limit.

foota 8y ago
I believe most jurisdictions require you to leave a space for some time before the parking "resets"
- _archon_ 8y ago
  How would they know that hadn't happened?
  - foota 8y ago
    If you require vehicles to be gone from a certain street for 24 hours, say, before parking there again for a 2 hour spot, and you check it at 1 pm then later at 4 pm, you can conclude the vehicle wasn't gone for 24 hours.