U.K. town rolls out "intelligent" parking meters

It looks like Eastbourne in East Sussex, UK is the latest town to ditch its old school parking meters in favor of some decidedly more high-tech options, with the county's council even going so far as to boast that their new meters are among the most "secure and intelligent" in the country. Costing a hefty £3,000 (or over $6,000) apiece, the meters pack a few more options than other newfangled meters, including their own SIM card that can be used to call for help if anyone attempts to bust one open. As with some similar meters, these ones, dubbed the Alfia 300 CI, are solar powered, and each is also covered by a CCTV system to catch vandals or would-be pocket change thieves in the act. While 150 of the meters are reportedly already in place in the town, they're apparently being kept under wraps until the big unveiling on Monday, when the whole lot is set to go into service.

[Via textually.org, photo courtesy of Eastbourne Today]

[mark @ Oct 5th 2007 2:07PM]

erm... wow?

[Samuel Fieldhouse @ Oct 5th 2007 2:25PM]

Kudos Engadget, Its really nice for us British readers to see 'localized' gadget news for the UK.

I live just next door in West Sussex, maybe we'll see these machines fairly soon....

[Lazerface @ Oct 5th 2007 3:23PM]

They're also rolling this system out in Calgary, AB during the fall. This helps our very dense downtown core population, which changes from deserted at night to 250,000-300,000 workers, with a good bulk of them driving.

[Adam @ Oct 5th 2007 5:06PM]

Jesus the internets a small world, I'm from (beautiful ;-D) West Sussex as well

Call me naive but does enough money really get stolen out of these things to warrant 3 grand a throw?

[Samuel Fieldhouse @ Oct 5th 2007 5:09PM]

LOL Adam.

Although I have to say the last time I used a parking meter somebody forgot their change so it gave me an extra £1.50 back!

[paccoast2010 @ Oct 6th 2007 2:48AM]

That's 6 grand Canadian ; )

[john @ Oct 5th 2007 2:40PM]

so?

[TEM @ Oct 5th 2007 2:55PM]

I am sure this is somehow George Bush's fault.

[HineyWipe @ Oct 5th 2007 2:56PM]

And so, you ask, why we 'mercan's revolted against Great Britain?

Parking Citations without Representation!

[Charles @ Oct 5th 2007 4:18PM]

You did the right thing because if there’s one thing the English specialise in it’s tax. In his budget Gordon Brown (aka Stalin) added a delayed £0.02 increase in petrol duties which has put the price of a litre of petrol over £1.00 in some areas (£3.79/$7.73 per gallon). What was amusing was that they added VAT on top of the £0.02 increase in duties to bring the total increase to £0.0235. While I might otherwise have found this annoying I’m moving to Panama in April so I just found the absurdity of adding tax onto tax quite funny.

[Wolfie @ Oct 5th 2007 3:04PM]

But now the Borough Council are launching a legal challenge (bit last minute, as the new parking scheme is supposed to come into force at 8am Monday), because the County Council have instigated it without their consent. So these super-hightech machines could be rudely uprooted and carted away very soon. Hopefully.

[David Piatek @ Oct 5th 2007 3:21PM]

I'm glad tax dollars are hard at work finding better technologically advanced ways of getting even more money from you. Cheers!...

[McGinley @ Oct 5th 2007 3:25PM]

No its in tax pounds...so thats about 2 tax dollars at todays exchange rates/

[fini @ Oct 5th 2007 3:27PM]

It's ironic that these have come to a town filled with OAPs - who will now spend the rest of their lives (so not long then) trying to work out how to use them.

[A_lesson_in_economics @ Oct 5th 2007 9:28PM]

You mean the same OAPS that can barely see them over the steering wheel? Ghost Cars rock, man!

[HaloZero00 @ Oct 5th 2007 3:39PM]

What's wrong with the old ones......? I mean.. really? How many people bust open parking meters?

Also...... SIM Card? ok. lets call the cops to inform them I'm being robbed. It's easier (and cheaper) add a car alarm thing to it. Make a loud noise and scare the really desperate thief who is stealing from a parking meter.

[Archietype @ Oct 7th 2007 7:33AM]

Plenty of people still do if you live in London.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6577509.stm

This second story is about a shooting between rival gangs over the rights to steal from parking meters...it's bigger business than you think.

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/topstories/display.var.1486831.0.albanians_shot_rival_over_parking_meter_theft.php

[Skemo @ Oct 5th 2007 3:54PM]

Whatever happened to the simple times?

[JT_X @ Oct 5th 2007 4:32PM]

And on the road too, vicious gangs of keep left signs.

[stephen @ Oct 5th 2007 5:32PM]

"county's council even going so far as to boast that their new meters are among the most "secure and intelligent" in the country."

...riiiight, because the old stick-in-the-ground set such a high standard for that.

[Daley @ Oct 5th 2007 6:04PM]

In Calgary, AB they offer different rates for small cars. You have to input our licence plate when purchasing time. Oh and discounts to small cars (e.g. SMART)

[optV @ Oct 5th 2007 6:34PM]

I bet that over a span of 10 years the amount of change stolen from parking meters, or even cars, doesn't add up to the total cost of these ridiculously overpriced, big brother parking meters.

[Daryl Herbert @ Oct 5th 2007 7:10PM]

They might also see lower costs of maintenance, if they only have to unlock one machine at a time to get the change out.

What would be really cool: sensors under the parking spaces, so the meter can call up the Meter Maids to give a ticket. I think that's their long-term plan for increased parking revenue.

[eric @ Oct 5th 2007 8:22PM]

If it is that smart, are you be able to call the meter and add more time if you are running late.

[Carl @ Oct 5th 2007 8:25PM]

My council (Fortitude Valley, QLD, AU) just replaced *all* the old coin operated parking meters with fancy lcd-displayed ones that take credit cards, I guess it's just a sign of how much it costs to park here now.

[Michael Vermaak @ Oct 7th 2007 7:47AM]

I'm from Eastbourne and have seen these new meters around! the worst thing is the thought of all those CCTV cameras around here! Plus £3000! no wonder our coucil tax is so high! Lets hope the borough council stop this!

[Ben Grout @ Oct 8th 2007 5:02PM]

Wow. Who ever thought Eastbourne would get a mention on Engadget?! Shame it's for such a horrifically boring story.

[Tom @ Oct 9th 2007 1:23PM]

If it's solar powered, couldn't someone then knockout or cover the panel thus making it slowly lose juice? If it has no energy, how will the camera and phone work when someone breaks into it?