A new electronic device makes parking meters obsolete.
By Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
Parking meters - at first mechanical and later digital - have lined the streets of Europe and the U.S. for the last half a century. They have many faults: they are ugly; they often break down; users must have the correct coins, and they are forced to run back to "feed" the machine if they underestimated the time they'd be away. In addition the meters themselves are often vandalized and raided.
In response, Easy Park Israel Ltd., a high-tech company based in the town of Rosh Pina in the north of Israel, has developed an in-vehicle electronic parking system, designed to provide a comprehensive solution for street and lot parking, and offering tangible advantages for the driver, the parking inspector and the local authority.
The patented device - which currently costs less than $25 - is "loaded" by inserting it into a minute-downloading machine, similar to a "cashpoint", situated at gasoline stations and in shopping malls. The user chooses the amount of money he wishes to pay, and then runs his credit card through the appropriate slot. The whole process takes only a few seconds.
On parking in his desired location, he presses the ON button, which displays the amount of money he has to his credit, and then presses it again to activate the system. He then keys in the code number of the city in which he is parking (each city can vary their tariffs or the length of time permissible to park) and hangs the device on the inside of the car window facing the sidewalk. On his return, he simply presses the OFF button to deactivate the system. The parking fees are automatically transferred via the system's clearing center to the accounts of the relevant municipalities while the device is being reloaded. .
The advantages of Easy Park are clear: it is a simple mechanism that doesn't break down, and it alerts you when you (rarely) have to change batteries. It is, in effect, a "smart card" or an "electronic purse" that ensures the highest level of protection against fraud. And unlike unaesthetic steel parking meters, it will not create piles of discarded paper tickets or receipts, and you pay for the exact amount of minutes you have parked. In addition, parking inspectors can check parked vehicles either visually or by using hand-held terminals, and are able to communicate with the EasyPark card through the windshield, even when the card is turned off. It can also be used at toll booths as a convenient substitute to loose change and long lines.
Easy Park Israel Ltd. was founded in 1991 as a subsidiary of On Track Innovations Ltd. (OTI), the world's pioneer in smart card technology. Israel's Union of Local Authorities has already signed an agreement with the company allowing any driver to use the device in 28 towns and cities throughout the country. Pilot projects in various other countries are currently underway, and the company expects to market the device worldwide in the near future.