Melbourne sensors to catch long parkers
Councillors from the City of Melbourne have formally approved a multi-million dollar project to install sensors into the ground to keep track of when cars move in and out of parking bays, as well as number plate recognition to better police parking in regional areas.
(Parking meter by Alpha, CC BY-SA 2.0)
The ground sensors will note how long a vehicle has been parked in a spot and, after a five-minute grace period, will send a signal to the nearest parking officer's hand-held device. The parking officer will manually issue the fine.
These sensors will be rolled out to 4619 single-marked bays across the central business district from 1 July to 30 October this year.
Meanwhile, two licence plate recognition units, consisting of a high-speed digital camera, integrated GPS and optical character recognition software, will be rolled out in Flemington, Kensington, North Melbourne and Carlton by 1 July which will be able to keep tabs on how long cars have been in their spaces.
The council will also trial parking payment using a mobile phone from 1 September.
Database Consultants Australia has been appointed to deliver the project, which will cost $5.48 million.