From: black.hole.4.spam{at}gmail.com (Don Hills)

In article , "Mark"
 wrote:
>If only they applied so much effort and ingenuity to reducing their
>expenditures as they do to trying to separate us from our money in ever more
>insidious ways to support their habit of spending like drunken sailors...

The "auto expiring" parking meter smacks of technology in search
of a problem to fix. At least the "Pay and display" system has
two good points, one intended, one not: Instead of a street having a meter
per place, it has one "meter" every 25 yards or so. That
"meter" is large and can hold a lot of coins, reducing the number
of emptying trips required per month. The meter maintenance costs are much
lower, too. Result, lower expenditure.

And in this city at least, the parking fees are deliberately set so high
that about 10 to 20 percent of the spaces are empty at any one time. You
can almost always find a space within 20 yards of where you want to go,
even in the central city. I save up my city errands, then buy one coupon
that will cover my full intended time in town and simply drive from one
errand location to the next until I'm done. Note that this is street
parking, building parking is usually cheaper and mainly used by the
"all day" parkers.

--
Don Hills    (dmhills at attglobaldotnet)     Wellington, New Zealand
"New interface closely resembles Presentation Manager,
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