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Jul 11, 2006 9:55 am US/Eastern
New Permits Allow For Hi-Tech Parking
HOBOKEN (CBS) ―
Parking is a problem faced by almost every driver, but Hoboken has a new hi-tech way of dealing with all those cars. Tech Editor Brett Larson sat down with Hoboken's director of parking to learn about how the city is handling its parking crunch.
Hoboken -- home to over 40,000 residents crammed into about 1.3 square miles of space – is using new radio frequency ID parking permits to ease parking pain. They look a lot like the old permits, but inside is a radio frequency ID tag. Officers can just zap your car to tell whether or not the permit is valid.
"Our old fashion permits were basically a decal which we had to manually inspect, make sure it was correct, or phone in or walkie talkie in to get a response," said Hoboken Director of Parking Utility John Corea.
He said 90 percent of Hoboken's residents will have the same permit which can be renewed every year online.
The permits are made by a company called Paylock, Inc.
"It basically alerts and wakes up these RFID chips and the chips will echo back an identification," said Paul Chiafullo of Paylock, Inc.
He added, "We use our software to then look through the database to see, 'is this car able to park here at this time?'"
For security reasons, the parking tags contain a unique ID number -- it works just like a Social Security Number and the company holds the information in a database.
If you forget to pay your tickets, you may get the "boot" – a yellow wheel clamp that prevents your car from moving. But now you can get it removed faster than before by calling on your phone and receiving the code to get the boot released within five minutes.
However, you can't leave the boot on the street corner – it still has to be returned to the proper authorities.
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