Alarming Parking Meters
In Silicon Valley, even the parking meters are networked.
A wireless network enables 50 parking meters in the city of Burlingame to send real-time alarms and other signals to a police dispatcher when the meters are tampered with. Burlingame police have arrested 27 people suspected of trying to steal from parking meters since the radio network was deployed in February, and none of the money in those meters has been stolen. In a typical six-month period, the city loses $60,000 in parking meter revenue.
“Arrests are up and losses are down,” said Gary Missel, Burlingame’s chief of police. “Alarm-equipped meters are the solution to meter thefts.”
The network, built by CellNet Data Systems in San Carlos, also helps boost parking meter revenue by warning police when meters are jammed or otherwise malfunctioning, Missel said.
CellNet executives seem optimistic about deploying parking meter networks throughout Silicon Valley. Larsh Johnson, CellNet vice president of commercial data services, points out that 47,000 of the 63,000 parking meters in the San Francisco Bay Area are in CellNet network coverage areas.
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