Better spent elsewhere

AS well as my quarterly billet-doux from the Hobart City Council, I received a leaflet telling me about more options for parking. These included wiping out any credit on the meter which might be used by the next user and a minimum $3 spend if using a credit card, even if you can’t park there that long. The money should have been spent stopping cars parking haphazardly in Quayle St and restoring Marieville Esplanade to the pleasant street it was. This council is entirely devoted to providing paid parking at the expense of sensible traffic flow. One idea would be to open clearways from 3pm when school kids are collected. Not too hard.

Cut losses, delete meters

TECHNOLOGY, when done right, improves efficiency, is user-friendly, interacts clearly, reduces stress and generally adds a positive aspect where it is applied. Sadly, pretty much on every front the new parking meters in Hobart CBD fail. Time to cut the losses, remove the redundant and rethink the problem.

We have the technology

MR Morrison, you keep telling us that the sun doesn’t shine all the time and wind doesn’t blow all the time to justify your love for coal-powered thermal stations. We also know it doesn’t rain all the time, but humans figured out how to store intermittent resources and maintain continuous water supply centuries ago.