Time runs out for the parking meter

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/feat...ing-meter.html


Time runs out for the parking meter
The council that introduced parking meters to the UK has sounded their
death knell - but however much we hate them, we'll miss them when
they're gone, says the creator of a new Radio 4 documentary


By Josie Barnard
Last Updated: 12:37PM GMT 30 Dec 2008

Hated by the public, targeted by criminals - and now for the chop?
Photo: DANIEL JONES

Fifty years ago this year, as the first parking meter was unveiled in
Grosvenor Square in London, George Nugent, the then parliamentary
secretary to the Ministry of Transport, chose to quote Milton to
honour its installation. He declaimed with absolute solemnity: "They
also serve who only stand and wait."

Such reverence is hard to imagine now for one of the most reviled
symbols of modern life. Like most people, I've long harboured a
dislike of these pieces of street furniture, which silently,
relentlessly take my cash. (It is not surprising that Ken Grange, who
designed the first British parking meter, says he never mentions his
achievement at parties.)

So news of its forthcoming extinction in parts of London should be
greeted with joy. But having made a programme about the history of the
meter for Radio 4, I'm now not so sure.

The parking meter was born in July 1935 in Oklahoma. Conceived by Carl
Magee, a local newspaper editor who sat on the chamber of commerce, it
was intended to solve the problem of oil workers' cars clogging up the
city centre. The simple wind-up, coin-operated device that Magee
proposed stayed in use for more than 40 years, even though the shell
was reportedly cobbled together by a plumber over a weekend.

There was ambivalence towards the device from the outset. While Magee
was happy to pose for photographs with his invention, the then mayor
of Oklahoma City refused, vehemently denying any responsibility for
the new beast. Then, the day after the meters were installed, a local
lawyer, Ed Butterfield, took out an injunction against the first 130,
forcing their use to be suspended for a week.

Clive Baker, now a senior lecturer in business strategy at Southampton
University, recalls that when parking meters were introduced in
Britain, they were welcomed – but not for long. As a local government
traffic engineer, he recalls that coins wrapped in paper or bits of
folded matchboxes were commonly used to jam them.

Then, in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman's character goes to
prison for the crime of knocking the heads off parking meters, and
Baker recalls that it caused a wave of copycat meter decapitations.

This wasn't the only attempt to disable the machines. The Sussex town
of Lewes is known for its tradition of burning a public hate figure on
its November 5 bonfire. By the 1990s, residents were giving similar
treatment to parking meters, blowing them up with fireworks. To date,
vandals have caused £300,000 of damage.

Meanwhile in central London, as the 21st century began, turf wars
developed during which rival Albanian gangs fought for the control of
keys to sets of meters. Oliver Finegold of Westminster Council says
that by 2007, Westminster was losing up to £120,000 per week to these
thieves.

Since then, the councils have struck back. In Lewes, the answer was
'"intelligent" meters, which use technology similar to that found in
home burglar alarms to trigger an alert to let the base know if a
machine is under attack.

However, Alasdair Gilchrist of Westminster council has come up with a
more radical solution: taking out all the meters. So the very council
that introduced the parking meter to this country is striking its
death knell.

Approximately 3,500 meters have been uprooted from central London. Of
the 800 left, all will be gone by early next year, replaced by chip
and pin and mobile phone technology instead. Groups of parking bays
now feature a sign with a code that drivers must text in, along with
their credit card details.

There are advantages, says Gilchrist. You no longer have to load your
pockets with change, and if a meeting runs over it's easy to text in
an extra payment to extend the time.

But Lancaster University's digital culture academic, Charlie Gere,
fears that these changes represent a sinister shift – one first
identified by the late French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Seen through
Deleuzian spectacles, the parking meter is symptomatic of a
"disciplinary society", in which we are required to pay for a
particular space that we can actually see.

Yet, once we have to text in our payments instead, we are in a
Deleuzian "society of control", where an act of parking on the ground
has implications in cyberspace. Councils can pass information about us
to other councils – for example, we could be stopped from parking in
Glasgow if we default on a payment in Penzance.

Added to that, not everyone has a mobile phone; Gere claims the new
scheme creates an underclass, the process by which the world splits
between digital haves and have-nots.

More practically, in most parking meters, at least there are two
minutes' leeway built in before the red penalty flag goes up. Perhaps
we have been too hasty to smash up this disliked piece of machinery.
Compared with the future, parking meters are starting to look benign.

•'Meter Mad' is on BBC Radio 4, at 11.30pm on December 30

Michaelnewpoort of course !!

"Carol Singer" a écrit dans le message de
...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/feat...ing-meter.html


Time runs out for the parking meter
The council that introduced parking meters to the UK has sounded their
death knell - but however much we hate them, we'll miss them when
they're gone, says the creator of a new Radio 4 documentary


By Josie Barnard
Last Updated: 12:37PM GMT 30 Dec 2008

Hated by the public, targeted by criminals - and now for the chop?
Photo: DANIEL JONES

Fifty years ago this year, as the first parking meter was unveiled in
Grosvenor Square in London, George Nugent, the then parliamentary
secretary to the Ministry of Transport, chose to quote Milton to
honour its installation. He declaimed with absolute solemnity: "They
also serve who only stand and wait."

Such reverence is hard to imagine now for one of the most reviled
symbols of modern life. Like most people, I've long harboured a
dislike of these pieces of street furniture, which silently,
relentlessly take my cash. (It is not surprising that Ken Grange, who
designed the first British parking meter, says he never mentions his
achievement at parties.)

So news of its forthcoming extinction in parts of London should be
greeted with joy. But having made a programme about the history of the
meter for Radio 4, I'm now not so sure.

The parking meter was born in July 1935 in Oklahoma. Conceived by Carl
Magee, a local newspaper editor who sat on the chamber of commerce, it
was intended to solve the problem of oil workers' cars clogging up the
city centre. The simple wind-up, coin-operated device that Magee
proposed stayed in use for more than 40 years, even though the shell
was reportedly cobbled together by a plumber over a weekend.

There was ambivalence towards the device from the outset. While Magee
was happy to pose for photographs with his invention, the then mayor
of Oklahoma City refused, vehemently denying any responsibility for
the new beast. Then, the day after the meters were installed, a local
lawyer, Ed Butterfield, took out an injunction against the first 130,
forcing their use to be suspended for a week.

Clive Baker, now a senior lecturer in business strategy at Southampton
University, recalls that when parking meters were introduced in
Britain, they were welcomed – but not for long. As a local government
traffic engineer, he recalls that coins wrapped in paper or bits of
folded matchboxes were commonly used to jam them.

Then, in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman's character goes to
prison for the crime of knocking the heads off parking meters, and
Baker recalls that it caused a wave of copycat meter decapitations.

This wasn't the only attempt to disable the machines. The Sussex town
of Lewes is known for its tradition of burning a public hate figure on
its November 5 bonfire. By the 1990s, residents were giving similar
treatment to parking meters, blowing them up with fireworks. To date,
vandals have caused £300,000 of damage.

Meanwhile in central London, as the 21st century began, turf wars
developed during which rival Albanian gangs fought for the control of
keys to sets of meters. Oliver Finegold of Westminster Council says
that by 2007, Westminster was losing up to £120,000 per week to these
thieves.

Since then, the councils have struck back. In Lewes, the answer was
'"intelligent" meters, which use technology similar to that found in
home burglar alarms to trigger an alert to let the base know if a
machine is under attack.

However, Alasdair Gilchrist of Westminster council has come up with a
more radical solution: taking out all the meters. So the very council
that introduced the parking meter to this country is striking its
death knell.

Approximately 3,500 meters have been uprooted from central London. Of
the 800 left, all will be gone by early next year, replaced by chip
and pin and mobile phone technology instead. Groups of parking bays
now feature a sign with a code that drivers must text in, along with
their credit card details.

There are advantages, says Gilchrist. You no longer have to load your
pockets with change, and if a meeting runs over it's easy to text in
an extra payment to extend the time.

But Lancaster University's digital culture academic, Charlie Gere,
fears that these changes represent a sinister shift – one first
identified by the late French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Seen through
Deleuzian spectacles, the parking meter is symptomatic of a
"disciplinary society", in which we are required to pay for a
particular space that we can actually see.

Yet, once we have to text in our payments instead, we are in a
Deleuzian "society of control", where an act of parking on the ground
has implications in cyberspace. Councils can pass information about us
to other councils – for example, we could be stopped from parking in
Glasgow if we default on a payment in Penzance.

Added to that, not everyone has a mobile phone; Gere claims the new
scheme creates an underclass, the process by which the world splits
between digital haves and have-nots.

More practically, in most parking meters, at least there are two
minutes' leeway built in before the red penalty flag goes up. Perhaps
we have been too hasty to smash up this disliked piece of machinery.
Compared with the future, parking meters are starting to look benign.

•'Meter Mad' is on BBC Radio 4, at 11.30pm on December 30

scRunge13 blabbled:

Michaelnewpoort of course !!


The clock is ticking in scRunge's banlieu hovel..."TICK - TOCK - TICK -
TOCK...".

Will he set any cars on fire to "celebrate" the New Year...???

--
Best
Greg


"Carol Singer" a écrit dans le message de
...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/feat...ing-meter.html


Time runs out for the parking meter
The council that introduced parking meters to the UK has sounded their
death knell - but however much we hate them, we'll miss them when
they're gone, says the creator of a new Radio 4 documentary


By Josie Barnard
Last Updated: 12:37PM GMT 30 Dec 2008

Hated by the public, targeted by criminals - and now for the chop?
Photo: DANIEL JONES

Fifty years ago this year, as the first parking meter was unveiled in
Grosvenor Square in London, George Nugent, the then parliamentary
secretary to the Ministry of Transport, chose to quote Milton to
honour its installation. He declaimed with absolute solemnity: "They
also serve who only stand and wait."

Such reverence is hard to imagine now for one of the most reviled
symbols of modern life. Like most people, I've long harboured a
dislike of these pieces of street furniture, which silently,
relentlessly take my cash. (It is not surprising that Ken Grange, who
designed the first British parking meter, says he never mentions his
achievement at parties.)

So news of its forthcoming extinction in parts of London should be
greeted with joy. But having made a programme about the history of the
meter for Radio 4, I'm now not so sure.

The parking meter was born in July 1935 in Oklahoma. Conceived by Carl
Magee, a local newspaper editor who sat on the chamber of commerce, it
was intended to solve the problem of oil workers' cars clogging up the
city centre. The simple wind-up, coin-operated device that Magee
proposed stayed in use for more than 40 years, even though the shell
was reportedly cobbled together by a plumber over a weekend.

There was ambivalence towards the device from the outset. While Magee
was happy to pose for photographs with his invention, the then mayor
of Oklahoma City refused, vehemently denying any responsibility for
the new beast. Then, the day after the meters were installed, a local
lawyer, Ed Butterfield, took out an injunction against the first 130,
forcing their use to be suspended for a week.

Clive Baker, now a senior lecturer in business strategy at Southampton
University, recalls that when parking meters were introduced in
Britain, they were welcomed – but not for long. As a local government
traffic engineer, he recalls that coins wrapped in paper or bits of
folded matchboxes were commonly used to jam them.

Then, in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman's character goes to
prison for the crime of knocking the heads off parking meters, and
Baker recalls that it caused a wave of copycat meter decapitations.

This wasn't the only attempt to disable the machines. The Sussex town
of Lewes is known for its tradition of burning a public hate figure on
its November 5 bonfire. By the 1990s, residents were giving similar
treatment to parking meters, blowing them up with fireworks. To date,
vandals have caused £300,000 of damage.

Meanwhile in central London, as the 21st century began, turf wars
developed during which rival Albanian gangs fought for the control of
keys to sets of meters. Oliver Finegold of Westminster Council says
that by 2007, Westminster was losing up to £120,000 per week to these
thieves.

Since then, the councils have struck back. In Lewes, the answer was
'"intelligent" meters, which use technology similar to that found in
home burglar alarms to trigger an alert to let the base know if a
machine is under attack.

However, Alasdair Gilchrist of Westminster council has come up with a
more radical solution: taking out all the meters. So the very council
that introduced the parking meter to this country is striking its
death knell.

Approximately 3,500 meters have been uprooted from central London. Of
the 800 left, all will be gone by early next year, replaced by chip
and pin and mobile phone technology instead. Groups of parking bays
now feature a sign with a code that drivers must text in, along with
their credit card details.

There are advantages, says Gilchrist. You no longer have to load your
pockets with change, and if a meeting runs over it's easy to text in
an extra payment to extend the time.

But Lancaster University's digital culture academic, Charlie Gere,
fears that these changes represent a sinister shift – one first
identified by the late French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Seen through
Deleuzian spectacles, the parking meter is symptomatic of a
"disciplinary society", in which we are required to pay for a
particular space that we can actually see.

Yet, once we have to text in our payments instead, we are in a
Deleuzian "society of control", where an act of parking on the ground
has implications in cyberspace. Councils can pass information about us
to other councils – for example, we could be stopped from parking in
Glasgow if we default on a payment in Penzance.

Added to that, not everyone has a mobile phone; Gere claims the new
scheme creates an underclass, the process by which the world splits
between digital haves and have-nots.

More practically, in most parking meters, at least there are two
minutes' leeway built in before the red penalty flag goes up. Perhaps
we have been too hasty to smash up this disliked piece of machinery.
Compared with the future, parking meters are starting to look benign.

•'Meter Mad' is on BBC Radio 4, at 11.30pm on December 30

On 1/01/09 1:15, in article ,
"Gregory Morrow" wrote:


scRunge13 blabbled:

Michaelnewpoort of course !!


The clock is ticking in scRunge's banlieu hovel..."TICK - TOCK - TICK -
TOCK...".

Will he set any cars on fire to "celebrate" the New Year...???


He just an award--Grand vainqueur du concours "première connerie 2009

Newsgroups: fr.rec.radio.amateur
From: Alain Bessyle
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:51:20 +0100
Local: Thurs, Jan 1 2009 2:51*pm
Subject: Grand vainqueur du concours "première connerie 2009"

Runge13 vient de nous annoncer :

****

Another member of the Runge appreciation club.

"Earl Evleth" a écrit dans le message de
...
On 1/01/09 1:15, in article
,
"Gregory Morrow" wrote:


scRunge13 blabbled:

Michaelnewpoort of course !!


The clock is ticking in scRunge's banlieu hovel..."TICK - TOCK - TICK -
TOCK...".

Will he set any cars on fire to "celebrate" the New Year...???


He just an award--Grand vainqueur du concours "première connerie 2009

Newsgroups: fr.rec.radio.amateur
From: Alain Bessyle
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:51:20 +0100
Local: Thurs, Jan 1 2009 2:51 pm
Subject: Grand vainqueur du concours "première connerie 2009"

Runge13 vient de nous annoncer :

****

Another member of the Runge appreciation club.

On Jan 1, 1:15*am, "Gregory Morrow" wrote:
scRunge13 blabbled:

Michaelnewpoort of course !!

The clock is ticking in scRunge's banlieu hovel..."TICK - TOCK - TICK -
TOCK...".

Will he set any cars on fire to "celebrate" the New Year...???


er, that would be....."celebate" the new year, by staying in and
playing with its todger

On 1 jan, 17:40, Carol Singer wrote:
On Jan 1, 1:15*am, "Gregory Morrow" wrote:

scRunge13 blabbled:

Michaelnewpoort of course !!

The clock is ticking in scRunge's banlieu hovel..."TICK - TOCK - TICK -
TOCK...".

Will he set any cars on fire to "celebrate" the New Year...???

er, that would be....."celebate" the new year, by staying in and
playing with its todger

So how did YOU amuse yourself Carol Singer? (snicker)

On Jan 1, 8:09*pm, Capitalist Pig
wrote:
On 1 jan, 17:40, Carol Singer wrote:

On Jan 1, 1:15*am, "Gregory Morrow" wrote:

scRunge13 blabbled:

Michaelnewpoort of course !!

The clock is ticking in scRunge's banlieu hovel..."TICK - TOCK - TICK -
TOCK...".

Will he set any cars on fire to "celebrate" the New Year...???

er, that would be....."celebate" the new year, by staying in and
playing with its todger

So how did YOU amuse yourself Carol Singer? (snicker)

....the normal.....got drunk and had sex with a stranger (woman if I
remember correctly ;-).....

On 1 jan, 22:32, Karole Singeur wrote:
On Jan 1, 8:09*pm, Capitalist Pig
wrote:





On 1 jan, 17:40, Carol Singer wrote:

On Jan 1, 1:15*am, "Gregory Morrow" wrote:

scRunge13 blabbled:

Michaelnewpoort of course !!

The clock is ticking in scRunge's banlieu hovel..."TICK - TOCK - TICK -
TOCK...".

Will he set any cars on fire to "celebrate" the New Year...???

er, that would be....."celebate" the new year, by staying in and
playing with its todger

So how did YOU amuse yourself Carol Singer? (snicker)

...the normal.....got drunk and had sex with a stranger (woman if I
remember correctly ;-).....- Masquer le texte des messages précédents -

- Afficher le texte des messages précédents -

Check your dipstick.....if you have one