MuniWireless

If there’s one municipal wireless application I am going to push, it’s wireless digital parking meters. I have been stuck so many times without enough coins to feed into those ancient meters that I think this is the one thing all cities need to implement now. It’s time to stop using Roman technology (i.e. coins). Below a photo of a digital parking meter, powered by a solar cell nonetheless, very green indeed.

A company called Digital Payment Technologies is installing them in various cities. The meters use either a cellular or Wi-Fi connection to complete the transaction (credit or debit card). Brookline, Massachusetts is installing these wireless meters, but they are using the city’s Wi-Fi network (which runs on Strix Systems equipment). We have a similar wireless parking meter system in Amsterdam but it uses a cellular connection.