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Parking Meter Refund

Get back the money you put in the meter
  (+9)(+9)
(+9)
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against]

If I put enough money in the meter for 2 hours, and I am gone for only 1 hour, it would be nice to get the money for the hour I did not use back. You would have to enter a password on the meter using the keypad attached to it so that nobody else can remove your money and reset the meter.
kewldude471, Jul 31 2006

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       Since there are parking cards now (in NYC, at least), this is feasible; you could reinsert your card when you get back and reclaim your money (the machine has to remember that you bought time less than 2 hours ago). Or ignore the refund if you are lazy.
phundug, Jul 31 2006
  

       Yeah... Somehow I dont see the local governments loosing out on that overpayment income... Nice idea though.
James Newton, Jul 31 2006
  

       My local authority is just getting around to the notion of paying for car parking at the end of your stay, on the basis of how long you've stayed; currently, you pay for 1 or 2 hours up front without knowing how long your stay might be. If you expected 55 minutes but were delayed by 10, you cop for an £80 charge.
angel, Jul 31 2006
  

       I don't know, I tend to drive around until I find a meter with a lot of time still left on it. This would mean that I would actually have to pay for parking more often.   

       Bun anyways, since I hate it when I overpay.   

       Redundant if you live in an society advanced enough to have discovered "pay afterwards parking".
DocBrown, Aug 01 2006
  

       Or go one further.   

       Give the parker the option of swiping a credit card - the charge would be large - but completely refundable.   

       So £50 or whatever - over a large city, this could allow the council to borrow a large pool of money, which they invest in a high-interest account.   

       Kinda like Oyster cards (the Travel cards in London) but for parking.
monojohnny, Aug 01 2006
  

       How does "pay afterwards" parking work? Do you have to use some kind of swipe card w/ your info on it?   

       I've found some examples by googling, but none of them really seem to me to prevent people from driving off without paying. (one thing I found said you could text message a payment to the meter)
Zimmy, Aug 01 2006
  

       //How does "pay afterwards" parking work?//
I'll let you know when (if) it actually happens. Past experience of anything that my local authority touches suggests that it'll work very badly.
angel, Aug 01 2006
  

       [Zimmy] it's normally used to control parking in a car park, rather than on the street and goes like this:
1)Enter car park, take ticket.
2)Return to car, insert ticket in machine, pay for time parked.
3)Place ticket in other machine to raise barrier and exit.

It's good because it ensures you only ever pay for time you've parked, but would require a little thought to translate to the situation I believe this idea is meant to address (parking bays on the side of the road, policed by meters).
DocBrown, Aug 02 2006
  


 

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