Thursday, March 30, 2006

Midwest Parking Meter vs Northwest Parking Meter

So Portland, being the environmentally conscious community that it is has these fancy parking meters installed on each street.

IMG_0658

Note the solar panel on the top of the unit [ quite contradicting seeing how they claim it rains here all the time...]. Basically you insert your money - your charge/atm card or coins - and it prints a receipt that has a self-adhesive that you stick to the inside of your car. One of this things serves an entire street.

Parking_meter_chicago

Now take this old thing which you see all over the streets of Milwaukee and Chicago... hmm... Which government employee gets the job to collect all those coins in these damn things? And how many times did you have to go searching around your car to find coins to feed the damn thing. Or do what I did 50% of the time. You don't give it any money. Then you hope like hell that you don't have a ticket when you get back to your car.

Winner = Portland Parking Meter.

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