Dear Editor,
I would like to respond to Steve Stajich’s column in the May 25 edition “The Robo Meters Are Coming!” OK, Steve. So I read your article and now I’d like to plant a little tune in your ears.
So the new meters are very communicative. They know how much time you have on the meter, they know your MasterCard number, they know if your time is up, and they know if your car is still parked there. Well, how about this. Taking these facts all together, now the “meter maids” don’t have to search aimlessly trying to find cars with expired meters. They always know exactly which ones have expired with cars still parked there and where they are. That is, the meter persons can just get a ‘road map’ from central headquarters (or have it instantly dumped to their city-issued smart phone) that will tell them the most efficient path to take to be able to ticket all of the currently expired meters. Now that’s what I call smart “metering.” And, if your car were still parked there when the meter actually expired, they could offer you the convenience of automatically debiting your MasterCard for the amount of the parking fine. Now that’s what I would call space age convenience. Wouldn’t you?
Craig Peterson
Santa Monica
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