A parking meter could be a smartphone app

Dear Editor, The future Guyana is seeking happened years ago in some countries of the world. The fact remains that as a Third World country modern technologies available in other countries will arrive on our shores years from now clichéd; yet thanks to globalization we seem to be catching up in some areas and yet hopelessly falling behind in others. We must never, ever surrender to a Third World mentality, however.

Take parking meters, for instance. Let’s take them as a necessary revenue stream in municipal development; we are not leading in any regard but instead playing the game of catch-up development. While we have been introduced to parking meters as a physically cumbersome mechanism that is about to destroy the British-French-Dutch colonial aesthetics of our capital city, Georgetown, in other places of the world the term ‘parking meter’ is no longer associated with a physical object but a metaphor for a utility that exacts a fee in exchange for the use of a particular space in a city. This utility can be represented by a smartphone app.

Enter ‘Pango+’ Parking, one of thousands of parking apps available worldwide, used efficiently and effectively in countries like Israel. Pango+, according to literature available online, is “the most efficient, economical & technologically advanced cellular phone parking system in the world, rendering it possible to pay for your parking time on street zones anywhere in Israel, using your cellular phone, a smartphone application or by dialing *4500. Registration is free and requires no membership.”

Pango + is not limited to on-street parking, but also caters for parking lots as well. “Pango+ enables you to pay at parking lots nationwide using the smartphone application or by sending a text message (SMS). The service offers many advantages, as there is no need to use cash or credit cards or search for a pay machine”, neither does it need a card vendor.

Our entire parking meter initiative is said to be a US$10 million investment, a sum that has been deemed to be bloated by experts and which could have been easily raised by local investors.

I read with interest that, “The parking ‘pay by phone’ market is heating up in the US, with app developers closing deals with municipalities and counties all over the country for implementation of their parking solution. So far, based on market share, the leader is Israel’s Pango – and as a sign of investors’ faith in the company, and in the business model, Pango several weeks ago locked up an additional round of financing, raising an additional $6.5 million that will enable it to expand its services to additional cities in the US and elsewhere.” (www.timesofisrael.com)

Underlined and emboldened were, “6.5 million”, “cities” and “elsewhere”.

No doubt an app-based service would be less costly, reducing infrastructure and other related costs. Additionally, I have every confidence that domestic start-up companies like IntellectStorm and others already have the capacity to produce the technology necessary for such a future now, and at less cost than the current system demands.

Yours faithfully, Sherod Avery Duncan Deputy Mayor Municipality of Georgetown