Parking Kiosks And Cameras Are Undesirable Tech For Swarthmore

Parking Kiosks And Cameras Are Undesirable Tech For Swarthmore

By Bob Small

Swarthmore Council, May 6, tabled a plan to introduce parking kiosks. The introduction of parking kiosks had been discussed at previous meetings.

That the plan was tabled doesn’t mean it still won’t happen

This is from an unpublished letter sent to the Swarthmorean;

Armond White had spoken of “technology and it’s worship” and this Swarthmore Borough change to parking kiosks has many potential problems, some of which are described in this article by Megan Hills from The Columbus Dispatch.

Swarthmore Borough is currently unable to keep up with the maintenance of their parking meters. How will they then keep up with an even higher level of technology and keep the kiosks operational?

Many of us have already battled with the Media kiosks, and, having admitted defeat, rarely attempt to go there. Many of their machines refuse to accept coinage.

Is this the best that Swarthmore can do?

In The Pros and Cons of Parking Meter Solutions other negatives listed are;

As an honor system parking meters traditionally provide less revenue capture

• Customers sometimes forget their license plate number or have difficulty entering information into the system (Pay-by-License-Plate)
• Some systems do require proof of payment on a dashboard (Pay-and-Display)
• Validations are challenging because it is a pre-pay system
• Regular parking enforcement for compliance is required (additional labor costs)

It turns out that the condo developer decided not to pay his share of any parking changes, so they have been put on hold. We will now have diagonal parking become parallel parking and there will now be a charge for meters on Saturday rather than free parking.

Meanwhile, the proposed Town Center cameras have been tabled. Initially, the rainbow crosswalk(s) were approved as it cost the Borough nada. However, the crosswalk(s) were defaced and the Swarthmore Police Department wants to find the perp. These cameras would cost $8,675, with a possible split in cost with Swarthmore College i.e. $4,337.50.

One of our favorite councilpersons, Scarlett McCahill, said “For instance in the U.K., it’s widely used in public spaces, and it hasn’t demonstrated much reduction in petty crime, and it’s susceptible to abuse, whether that’s criminal abuse, personal, or institutional.” She went on to say “I don’t think this is something that enhances our public life.” For full remarks, see The Swarthmorean article.

Parking Kiosks And Cameras Are Undesirable Tech