Smart parking trial begins in Manuka

rommeldog56 said :

wildturkeycanoe said :

Why is using a hands-free parking assist feature breaking the law, @dungfungus? Which law?

Both hands must be on the wheel when in control of a motor vehicle.
Ask a traffic cop because that is what they told me.

That is true.

Though a cop would have to be pretty bored to bust someone using park assist (not to mention he’d need to have a pretty keen eye). Having worked with these guys in the past most of them exercise pretty good judgement in sorting the genuinely bust-worthy from the rest. Some of the NSW highway patrol boys are unashamed rev-heads (don’t tell them I told you though haha) they’d much rather be out on the highway than cruising the back streets of Queanbeyan or Braidwood looking for park-assist offenders, believe me.

rommeldog56 said :

wildturkeycanoe said :

Why is using a hands-free parking assist feature breaking the law, @dungfungus? Which law?

Both hands must be on the wheel when in control of a motor vehicle.
Ask a traffic cop because that is what they told me.

So how do you indicate or change gears?

Lets release a free parking app and then fine drivers $400 if we catch them using it . Win Win for the government.

JC said :

wildturkeycanoe said :

Mordd said :

So much for not using your phone while driving

That’s a good point, presumably one is meant to pull over, get out phone, find parking spot, put away phone, proceed to spot?

Or, you know, look at one of the “five new LED signs to guide patrons to available parking spaces”

And what’s so smart about that? They’ve had LED signs on multi-storey car-parks in Jakarta (the capital of a supposedly less-developed country) for the last ten years, even identifying the number of spaces available on each level.

My initial comment referred to this part of the article.
“The trial utilises … CBRfree WiFi to communicate information to a Smartphone application”

wildturkeycanoe said :

Why is using a hands-free parking assist feature breaking the law, @dungfungus? Which law?

Both hands must be on the wheel when in control of a motor vehicle.
Ask a traffic cop because that is what they told me.

wildturkeycanoe said :

Mordd said :

So much for not using your phone while driving

That’s a good point, presumably one is meant to pull over, get out phone, find parking spot, put away phone, proceed to spot?

Or, you know, look at one of the “five new LED signs to guide patrons to available parking spaces”

wildturkeycanoe said :

Mordd said :

So much for not using your phone while driving

That’s a good point, presumably one is meant to pull over, get out phone, find parking spot, put away phone, proceed to spot?

And when they park using that hands free “parking assist” feature they are breaking the law as well.

Mordd said :

So much for not using your phone while driving

That’s a good point, presumably one is meant to pull over, get out phone, find parking spot, put away phone, proceed to spot?

So much for not using your phone while driving

Tenpoints said :

JC said :

Just another layer of privacy intrusion, facilitated by the government …

I’m sorry, I don’t understand – how is using an app to find a parking spot considered “privacy intrusion”?

If I understand Masquara logic:
– this is being done by the ACT Government
– they are not Liberals and very bad
– privacy intrusions are bad
– therefore ‘smart parking’ is bad and a privacy intrusion.

I might have missed a leap somewhere, but that seems about right…

It could be Masquara might, in a more lucid state, be saying something like:
– smart parking will track how long my car has been at a particular public place
– an inspector can ping me if the car has remained in that space longer than the time limit, if I have not moved the car off and back on the sensor, even if I have paid the full time-charge
– the inspector will then be able to take my licence information and know who the human was and where the human was, because of where the car was
– this is a bit like having an ID card that can be read from space
– so that is bad for privacy.

Hmm, interpreting Masquara logic is harder than understanding Dungers’ train of thought.

JC said :

Just another layer of privacy intrusion, facilitated by the government …

That cursed spellchecker, I think you meant guvmin’.

Don’t know which is worse, The Nanny State or The Ninny Public that the The Nanny State tries to compensate for.

Tenpoints said :

JC said :

Just another layer of privacy intrusion, facilitated by the government …

I’m sorry, I don’t understand – how is using an app to find a parking spot considered “privacy intrusion”?

I was wondering that myself.

JC said :

Just another layer of privacy intrusion, facilitated by the government …

I’m sorry, I don’t understand – how is using an app to find a parking spot considered “privacy intrusion”?

David M said :

I downloaded the app is not that great. It didn’t show where the available spots are in Manuka

I figured it out. You have to search a specific street (e.g. Furneaeux Street) to show all available parking at the Manuka shops. You can’t just open the map and scroll around like Parkopedia.

You can save searches and they are listed under street names. It would be much better if you could save them under suburbs instead.

wildturkeycanoe said :

The on-street parking system may have an alternative agenda of alerting parking inspectors via WiFi when parking vouchers expire. This particular technology is used in other cities.

I believe is would have been included in a secret report with statistics on increased revenue in other cities. Installed for the communities benefit – bullsh@t!

wildturkeycanoe said :

Perhaps the App is the only aspect worth reporting.

I downloaded the app is not that great. It didn’t show where the available spots are in Manuka and only made it possible to pay and top up your parking through the app. Manual top up too so you better not let the meter run out, not for even a second. The parking inspector will be waiting at your car, with machine in hand counting down the seconds, and will slap the ticket on your windscreen the moment the meter expires.

Just another layer of privacy intrusion, facilitated by the government …

This will only eliminate some of the stupid circling at considerable expense, but what are the drivers going to do when the few available spots are even more quickly taken up? Wake up and avoid the problem all together by not dragging their 2 tonne polluter everywhere they go?

Not likely.

Technology already available at the Canberra Centre, Westfield Belconnen and Canberra Airport.
Perhaps the App is the only aspect worth reporting.

The on-street parking system may have an alternative agenda of alerting parking inspectors via WiFi when parking vouchers expire. This particular technology is used in other cities.