6 ms·

Seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Park car, read sign: cool to park here. Return to car with ticket, read sign: no parking, huge fine. It's like those

Seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Park car, read sign: cool to park here. Return to car with ticket, read sign: no parking, huge fine. It's like those quick change speed limit signs the evil sheriff from the dukes of hazard would put up to generate speeding tickets.

bigiain 11y ago
Maybe time to write some OpenCV software for a dashcam - to record all changes/updates in the parking signs...
- JupiterMoon 11y ago
  It doesn't need any smart features. Just a photo of the sign's state when you park. Then if you get a ticket that photo should be enough to appeal the ticket.
  - userbinator 11y ago
    Now imagine a database of photos of each sign, taken in various states at various times of day, and add a little Photoshop or other image-editing program of choice... this is too exploitable, both by those looking for free parking and those wanting to extract more parking tickets.
    - JupiterMoon 11y ago
      A photo of rotated or covered or gratified sign is already enough to appeal a parking ticket - but people don't generally do it unless it is real because... This would be fraud. Get caught and you go directly to jail (unless your really rich - in which case I guess you'll get off) for quite a long time. Like many things it is technically possible but legally a bad idea to actually do it.
danieltillett 11y ago
More likely go to park and find the sign is vandalised and you have no idea of the restrictions in place. Talking about bad signs I once got a fine for parking on a road near the Randwick Racecourse (this is next to UNSW). It was fine to park there expect on race days. You would think this would be pretty easy to work this out as the race course was visible from the road and when they were running races there were horses and people everywhere. If only it was so simple - apparently race days could be race days at other race tracks meaning a race happening somewhere else meant you got a fine. How a normal person was supposed to know this is beyond me.
yitchelle 11y ago
Worst still, it becomes a tow-away zone. Your car is missing when you return later.
dspillett 11y ago
More mechanical versions of this sort of sign have been around for quite some time without huge abuse. There are streets around here that vary between pedestrian only, limited traffic (i.e. deliveries to serve local shops), and open access but one way, depending on the time of day. They are gated by signs with three faces, the right one is rotated into view at the appropriate times. This is just an e-ink version of such signs, which achieves the same aim and will be more flexible as they are presumably easier to update if/when the rules change and aren't limited in the number of display options as a mechanical display is. My concern would be that these new displays might be harder to read depending on lighting conditions.
- cooper12 11y ago
  > My concern would be that these new displays might be harder to read depending on lighting conditions. They address that in the last sentence: > And for folks who have trouble reading dull, iron-colored screens, they also feature little lights that illuminate the text at night.
  - vacri 11y ago
    Even in daylight, the screens have shitty contrast. Look at the photo. All the real street signs are high contrast and clearly visible. In the second photo, the sign is terrible to read - you wouldn't be able to read it well as you drive past. You'd actually have to pull in. It's also redundant in that photo - a Clearway sign next to a No Stopping sign?
Intermernet 11y ago
Hopefully the system has some internal auditing that can't easily be altered, but that's probably wishful thinking.
linker3000 11y ago
Park car, take photo of sign, email it somewhere.
bradjohnson 11y ago
It doesn't seem like it would bode well for a city to be purposefully and maliciously scamming the residents through parking fines. The current method of obfuscation and confusion with legal deniability would probably work better legally. It would be pretty easy to prove in court that the signs were changing at incorrect times also.
- chrisbennet 11y ago
  The use/abuse of red light cameras might be an indicator of future behavior...
- djrogers 11y ago
  > It doesn't seem like it would bode well for a city to be purposefully and maliciously scamming the residents through parking fines. You haven't spent much time in San Francisco, have you? The parking violation system is corrupt, mobbed up, malicious, and I'm amazed that there hasn't been an axe-handles and pitchforks style fix to it.
prawn 11y ago
Scan a QR code or visit a URL for the full parking schedule in that spot. Not ideal, but a bit better. e.g., the sign could advertise its own URL of sydneyparking.com/DF7S9 and show any extra detail there.

bigiain 11y ago

Maybe time to write some OpenCV software for a dashcam - to record all changes/updates in the parking signs...

JupiterMoon 11y ago
It doesn't need any smart features. Just a photo of the sign's state when you park. Then if you get a ticket that photo should be enough to appeal the ticket.
- userbinator 11y ago
  Now imagine a database of photos of each sign, taken in various states at various times of day, and add a little Photoshop or other image-editing program of choice... this is too exploitable, both by those looking for free parking and those wanting to extract more parking tickets.
  - JupiterMoon 11y ago
    A photo of rotated or covered or gratified sign is already enough to appeal a parking ticket - but people don't generally do it unless it is real because... This would be fraud. Get caught and you go directly to jail (unless your really rich - in which case I guess you'll get off) for quite a long time. Like many things it is technically possible but legally a bad idea to actually do it.

danieltillett 11y ago

More likely go to park and find the sign is vandalised and you have no idea of the restrictions in place. Talking about bad signs I once got a fine for parking on a road near the Randwick Racecourse (this is next to UNSW). It was fine to park there expect on race days. You would think this would be pretty easy to work this out as the race course was visible from the road and when they were running races there were horses and people everywhere. If only it was so simple - apparently race days could be race days at other race tracks meaning a race happening somewhere else meant you got a fine. How a normal person was supposed to know this is beyond me.

yitchelle 11y ago

Worst still, it becomes a tow-away zone. Your car is missing when you return later.

dspillett 11y ago

More mechanical versions of this sort of sign have been around for quite some time without huge abuse. There are streets around here that vary between pedestrian only, limited traffic (i.e. deliveries to serve local shops), and open access but one way, depending on the time of day. They are gated by signs with three faces, the right one is rotated into view at the appropriate times. This is just an e-ink version of such signs, which achieves the same aim and will be more flexible as they are presumably easier to update if/when the rules change and aren't limited in the number of display options as a mechanical display is. My concern would be that these new displays might be harder to read depending on lighting conditions.

cooper12 11y ago
> My concern would be that these new displays might be harder to read depending on lighting conditions. They address that in the last sentence: > And for folks who have trouble reading dull, iron-colored screens, they also feature little lights that illuminate the text at night.
- vacri 11y ago
  Even in daylight, the screens have shitty contrast. Look at the photo. All the real street signs are high contrast and clearly visible. In the second photo, the sign is terrible to read - you wouldn't be able to read it well as you drive past. You'd actually have to pull in. It's also redundant in that photo - a Clearway sign next to a No Stopping sign?

Intermernet 11y ago

Hopefully the system has some internal auditing that can't easily be altered, but that's probably wishful thinking.

linker3000 11y ago

Park car, take photo of sign, email it somewhere.

bradjohnson 11y ago

It doesn't seem like it would bode well for a city to be purposefully and maliciously scamming the residents through parking fines. The current method of obfuscation and confusion with legal deniability would probably work better legally. It would be pretty easy to prove in court that the signs were changing at incorrect times also.

chrisbennet 11y ago
The use/abuse of red light cameras might be an indicator of future behavior...
djrogers 11y ago
> It doesn't seem like it would bode well for a city to be purposefully and maliciously scamming the residents through parking fines. You haven't spent much time in San Francisco, have you? The parking violation system is corrupt, mobbed up, malicious, and I'm amazed that there hasn't been an axe-handles and pitchforks style fix to it.

prawn 11y ago

Scan a QR code or visit a URL for the full parking schedule in that spot. Not ideal, but a bit better. e.g., the sign could advertise its own URL of sydneyparking.com/DF7S9 and show any extra detail there.