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1 Kiosk = 50 Metres
March 1, 2005 at 3:07 pm AST by Rodney MacLeod

According to CBC the Canadian Union of Public employees is going to Charlottetown city council to argue in favour of vandal proof parking meters instead of the kiosks that the city just installed. Maybe there is more to it, but their argument seems to be that people have a tough time figuring out the new machines.

They are new machines. It is natural that some people will have a harder time figuring it out than other, but after one or two times using them, most people will know what they are doing. I do realise that some people do catch on to new technology more easily than others, but that is true with everything. Most everybody now has a microwave oven, VCR and/or DVD players, all of which are more complicated than a parking kiosk. These people learned how to use these machines, they will learn the kiosk.

For those who just cannot catch on to the kiosks there are three parking garages in town that are very easy to use. One of these parking garages is connected to the mall so that you don’t even have to walk out on the street. If you go shopping at the right store you can even get you parking tickets validated and not have to pay for parking at all.

I like the kiosks. Sure I might have to walk a little farther; I can use it, as can most of Charlottetown. My favourite thing about the kiosk is no more routing around for a quarter. Being able to pay with a credit card is the greatest. Any parking tickets I did received in the past were because I did not have any change, or did not have enough change. In these cases I usually just walked away hoping I do not get caught.