Councils all throughout Australia now have a new tool in their fight against cars who park illegally, replacing roving rangers with cunning high-tech equipment.
Select councils all throughout Australia have employed the technology, which is now gaining popularity.
Unmarked autos equipped with smart cameras and automatic fining technologies may immediately fine vehicles that are parking in public spaces for an excessive amount of time.
The parking rangers with chalk have been replaced with difficult SUVs with awkward-looking security-style cameras dangling out of their windows in Wolli Creek, Sydney’s south.
Bayside Council placed the vehicles there in 2020, but Covid lockdowns made them largely invisible.
Additionally, the municipality is sending penalties to suspected violators, doing away with the requirement for the customary slip that is hidden behind a windshield wiper.
The secret cars have angered some, but the council claims there are many benefits to them.
‘(The technology is responsible for) a significant reduction in administration time and reduces the number of infringements impacted by weather or taken off vehicles by others,’ said a spokeswoman for the council.
‘It has also reduced physical and verbal abuse to our parking officers in these areas by 100 per cent.’
Licence Plate Recognition and GPS software enable the council to pick out offenders with precision – with details instantly sent to Revenue NSW to chase them up.
‘The LPR system has simplified the process of issuing infringement notices.
‘The file is sent to Revenue NSW who issue the penalty infringement notice directly to the offending vehicle owner.’
Aussies are speculating in a frenzy online about the mysterious automobiles, asking precisely how the tech-heavy vehicles function.
Some posited that the driver might need to physically click in order to snap a picture of the vehicle, while others wondered if GPS technology might instantaneously establish the zone that a vehicle is parked in.
LPR technology enables the automobiles to automatically record the GPS coordinates and license plate numbers of the vehicles it passes.
Usually, a comparable database is aware of the boundaries in several domains.
‘The system just records ‘We first detected ABC123 at Lat/Long at 9:08AM, and again at the same location – or in the same restriction zone – at 11:30AM. That area has a 1 hour limit, and this vehicle has been there for 2 hours 22 minutes, we’re going to flag that as a violation and generate a fine’,’ explained a Reddit user.
Many locals aren’t happy with the tech.
‘As we move further and further into the future everything is just becoming more dystopian,’ wrote a disgruntled commenter.
‘Sutherland Shire has this technology too, but covert pinhole style cameras attached to the roof rack, and a d*** behind the wheel doing laps of the beachside carparks searching for camper vans,’ complained another.
A few commenters felt hard-done-by by the car.
‘I stopped in a no stopping for less than 5 seconds to let my wife out and was lucky enough to be pinged by one of these bot cars in Wolli Creek, the photo literally had the passenger door open in it,’ wrote one.
Others said it was an efficient way for the council to make revenue.
‘This has been around for a long time, I worked for a regional council that was using something similar 15 years ago. It made a lot of money,’ one said.
‘God bless Bayside council, to their credit they didn’t book people during the pandemic who couldn’t leave their home for work or isolation last year.
‘Guess they need to recoup all that lost revenue by going from rangers marking tyres to number plate readers. Some may say it’s like going from a fishing rod to a deep-sea trawler,’ wrote another.
‘These systems are crazy expensive, circa 100k for many of them, plus other ongoing costs, but they very, very quickly pay for themselves. One system can cover as much ground as dozens of parking officers, and are far more accurate. Parking related revenue is many councils’ second biggest revenue source,’ said a third.
2021 budget figures show the council spends some $6.9million on traffic and road safety, including parking management.