Hidden device in parking bays

[The Highlander]

Man this is getting silly now.... read below

 

MOTORISTS will be sitting ducks as councils launch a hi-tech parking blitz that will rip hundreds of millions of dollars in fines from Victorians.(Australian's)

 

New technology will enable councils and parking officers to fine drivers the second a car overstays its time limit.

The system, with a sensor buried under the road, will alert parking inspectors to an offence.

 

Maribyrnong Council has completed a 12-month trial of 500 new units. Its success is likely to encourage other councils across the state to follow suit.

 

The expected cash bonanza comes as figures show 11 inner-city Melbourne councils reaped $215 million in parking fines in just three years.

 

The electronic Parking Overstay Detection System (PODS) knows the second a car has been parked too long and automatically alerts a parking officer.

 

PODS involves a tiny device being inserted below the surface in parking bays.

 

The device takes a reading of the electromagnetic field of a car when it pulls into the bay and it immediately starts recording. It detects when a vehicle leaves the bay.

 

When a vehicle overstays the parking limit, the device sends a signal to hand-held computers carried by parking officers.

 

It tells them where the offending car is and how long it has been parked there.

 

The parking officer then goes to the bay and issues a ticket.

 

It means parking officers no longer need to constantly patrol the area as the PODS device tells them where offending vehicles are.

 

Parking officers no longer have to use the more labour-intensive method of marking tyres to work out when vehicles have parked for too long.

 

Maribyrnong City Council -- which made more than $2 million in parking fines in each of the last two financial years -- refused to release details of how many motorists were booked during the 12-month trial.

 

But a source told the Herald Sun a record number of parking tickets were issued as a result of the PODS devices.

 

The devices are almost impossible to detect and motorists are not warned of their presence.

 

Five hundred PODS devices were put in parking bays in Footscray and Yarraville during the trial.

 

Sites included the Irving St car park and parking bays in Nicholson, Paisley, Barkly, Anderson and Ballarat streets.

 

Maribyrnong council general manager of corporate services Nick Foa said the council was seeking a permanent supply of PODS devices.

 

"We have no concerns about the use of PODS as it improves the safety of our officers and is a more accurate and useful way of managing parking in our city," Mr Foa said.

 

Each PODS device is programmed with all the relevant data for the bay it is hidden in, including the time limit of the bay, the bay number and location and the date and time.

 

Promotional material from Vehicle Monitoring Systems, one of the companies bidding for the Maribyrnong contract, claims PODS devices work equally well in metered and non-metered bays.

 

Lawyer Richard Leder said courts would need to be satisfied the devices were accurate.

 

"For any fine to be imposed there needs to be evidence," the Corrs Chambers Westgarth partner said.

 

"Where there is a parking meter that has expired, the evidence comes from the fact that the meter has expired -- but the court also needs to accept that the meter was functioning properly.

 

"For a fine to be imposed relying on the PODS device, the same question would arise."

 

Maribyrnong Council's Nick Foa said there had been no legal problems so far.

[sknis]

Man this is getting silly now.... read below

 

MOTORISTS will be sitting ducks as councils launch a hi-tech parking blitz that will rip hundreds of millions of dollars in fines from Victorians.(Australian's)

 

New technology will enable councils and parking officers to fine drivers the second a car overstays its time limit.

The system, with a sensor buried under the road, will alert parking inspectors to an offence.

 

Maribyrnong Council has completed a 12-month trial of 500 new units. Its success is likely to encourage other councils across the state to follow suit.

 

The expected cash bonanza comes as figures show 11 inner-city Melbourne councils reaped $215 million in parking fines in just three years.

 

The electronic Parking Overstay Detection System (PODS) knows the second a car has been parked too long and automatically alerts a parking officer.

 

PODS involves a tiny device being inserted below the surface in parking bays.

 

The device takes a reading of the electromagnetic field of a car when it pulls into the bay and it immediately starts recording. It detects when a vehicle leaves the bay.

 

When a vehicle overstays the parking limit, the device sends a signal to hand-held computers carried by parking officers.

 

It tells them where the offending car is and how long it has been parked there.

 

The parking officer then goes to the bay and issues a ticket.

 

It means parking officers no longer need to constantly patrol the area as the PODS device tells them where offending vehicles are.

 

Parking officers no longer have to use the more labour-intensive method of marking tyres to work out when vehicles have parked for too long.

 

Maribyrnong City Council -- which made more than $2 million in parking fines in each of the last two financial years -- refused to release details of how many motorists were booked during the 12-month trial.

 

But a source told the Herald Sun a record number of parking tickets were issued as a result of the PODS devices.

 

The devices are almost impossible to detect and motorists are not warned of their presence.

 

Five hundred PODS devices were put in parking bays in Footscray and Yarraville during the trial.

 

Sites included the Irving St car park and parking bays in Nicholson, Paisley, Barkly, Anderson and Ballarat streets.

 

Maribyrnong council general manager of corporate services Nick Foa said the council was seeking a permanent supply of PODS devices.

 

"We have no concerns about the use of PODS as it improves the safety of our officers and is a more accurate and useful way of managing parking in our city," Mr Foa said.

 

Each PODS device is programmed with all the relevant data for the bay it is hidden in, including the time limit of the bay, the bay number and location and the date and time.

 

Promotional material from Vehicle Monitoring Systems, one of the companies bidding for the Maribyrnong contract, claims PODS devices work equally well in metered and non-metered bays.

 

Lawyer Richard Leder said courts would need to be satisfied the devices were accurate.

 

"For any fine to be imposed there needs to be evidence," the Corrs Chambers Westgarth partner said.

 

"Where there is a parking meter that has expired, the evidence comes from the fact that the meter has expired -- but the court also needs to accept that the meter was functioning properly.

 

"For a fine to be imposed relying on the PODS device, the same question would arise."

 

Maribyrnong Council's Nick Foa said there had been no legal problems so far.

 

Big brother is watching.

Houston is adding red light cameras in several areas. They take pictures of people running a red light. They are/will be going to court because someone is suing Houston because it is " just a money making ploy." Nothing is said about the potential accident reducing benefits or the legality of breaking the driving laws.

[Guest mlpasley]

Do you mean that no one has developed a website that gives the location of these booby trapped parking spaces? I would think that that there would be enough upset people willing to report where they got the tickets to alert other people.

 

At least in some cities, you can go to a website and find out where those camera equipped red lights are located. They use it as a preventative measure to keep people from running the lights and causing accidents.

[The Highlander]

Do you mean that no one has developed a website that gives the location of these booby trapped parking spaces? I would think that that there would be enough upset people willing to report where they got the tickets to alert other people.

 

At least in some cities, you can go to a website and find out where those camera equipped red lights are located. They use it as a preventative measure to keep people from running the lights and causing accidents.

 

We have had red light cams for about 15 years, they are not used much now, they just have speed camera's hidden now and click you the second you go 5 km over that set limit.

 

and the Australians have it worst...

they have the dam things on streets in suburbia and the likes in cars, vans , on poles, and even in rubbish wheel bins

 

look here http://www.policespeedcameras.info/

And you thought they were looking for aluminum cans!

 

PS: and here in New Zealand just like Australia there are severe laws that state that people cannot warn motorists or drivers of these , they cannot say on local media if , were these are active (as there is a law that they will prosecute you on over inhibiting the police )