The modern parking system in Belgrade
So besides the milk in boxes that doesn't need to be refrigerated and doesn't spoil, the other really cool system that Serbia has is the parking system in Belgrade. When you park your car downtown, you pay for your parking by texting your license plate number to the parking officials and pay via your cell phone bill at the end of the month. You can buy one hour at a time and it's enforced by a meter maid coming along with a handheld computer and typing in your license number - if your number is not entered, you get a ticket, if it is, then the meter maid just moves along.Why can't they come up with such a cool system in the US? This is just so simple and better than having to pay a machine or a meter because you can pay the bill each hour from your phone sitting at your desk.
Just thought I'd share this hidden gem in Serbia.
posted by Brooke @ 2:29 PM
9 Comments:
AND you can extend the time of parking, and - apparently- you get reminded that your paid parking is about to expire! It's great that you wrote about this - I wrote to my local papers back in Switzerland hoping that the Swiss traffic police might take the hint, but the fact that no one EVER has change makes them more money -maybe if enough people write about the Serb brilliant concept it will catch on - or maybe the Serbs will figure out the fact that the Swiss system is a cash cow and adopt it! hehe... but that's not why I logged on to your blog actually. I have an ulterior motive. (don't worry nothing freaky!) I just set up my blog from Turkey and I was going to name it desperateserbwife... when I saw you had the name. Anyway, I ended up reading your whole archive since the very beginning! Good stuff! Even if you aren't Serb! ;-) Anyway, I had a really hard time finding another name and I hope you won't mind I haven't strayed very far from yours...(not-so-desperate-yugowife if you want to have a look).
Keep up the good work, it's entertaining and a good read!
Yes, this IS a gem of an idea for parking fees. I hadn't heard about it. It's worth passing on in the hope that bureaucrats in other places will see the potential. Parking fines are everybody's bugbear.
I just remembered why they wouldn't want to implement this parking system in California. I don't know if it's true for the whole state, but there are numerous places in northern California where feeding the parking meter is illegal! Therefore, if your time is going to run out, and you remember and actually go out to put more money into the meter, you can potentially get a ticket if you are caught adding more time to the meter. In other words, you have to move your car -- no staying in one spot too long...
Yes, you are right, although already more then 2 years here in Serbia still no other city in the world copied it!!
Nice site you have!
belgradezodiac.blogspot.com
I guess it boils down to choice, and North America is all about choice.
While I love the idea and think it's fabulously time saving and convenient, there would be a lobby group formed to argue about the right to not be billed this way, privacy of information, and a plethora of other petty issues to stop it from happening.
Not to mention the fact that our cell phone companies are challenged with charging us correctly for our phone usage, much less parking fees.
Brooke, ur writings are perfect! not too long, not too short. very interesting from the very begining until the end. it's hard to write and yet entertain all of us..u keep reader's attention at all times. i went to sanika's blog and read a bit and got bored. i wrote to her to get some tips from u brooke on how to write interestingly enough if she's going to have a blog. bye
Brooke--can you write more pls?? and also about something positive you find there to chear me up! something i havent heard of yet by a foreigner. come on!! write please, i am bored if you re not here with a new post..all others cannot even compare to you..yours the best. 'ajde, ajde brooke da igramo..ajde ajde konja da prodamo..kucu da prodamo or perhaps not! :)))
Looks like someone got addicted.... or maybe more than that
Ticketing car owners for "overparking" probably generates more money for municipalities in the U.S. It's all about capitalism.
atk
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