City is cancelling fewer tickets since parking kiosks reprogrammed, but they still suck

COLUMN — Got a parking ticket this week.

It was the second one for the same reason — when I punched in my licence plate number on the kiosk keypad, one of the numbers didn’t register.

That’s because the keypad is glitchy. The numbers are hard to push and if you don’t do it just right some of your plate numbers and letters won’t enter. The screen — which is hard to read at the best of times — shows what the machine has registered, but who remembers to check that out?

When I arrived at my truck 20 minutes before time had expired, there was a ticket on my windshield. As she was cancelling the ticket, the nice clerk at the parking department explained that the first number or letter is a particular issue, for some reason.

I wondered how many other people were getting tickets for the same reason. Fortuitously, I ran into corporate services director Dave Duckworth and bylaws supervisor Jon Wilson having a high-level meeting in Motivo, so I asked them.

After the new kiosks were installed, they said, the City was cancelling 300 to 400 tickets per month. The kiosks have been reprogrammed and the problems have dropped dramatically.

The main issue was that, after a certain period of inactivity, the kiosks shut down to conserve solar power and the screen would go blank. People would start punching buttons and the machine would enter whatever was being punched on the keypad as part of the licence plate number.

Now, there’s a message that says, “Press Okay to begin.”

After Okay is pressed, the licence plate can be entered.

“Something like that really makes a difference to how a user interacts with the machines,” said Wilson.

That doesn’t help with the particular problem I had, but it’s something.

So, six months after they were installed, how are the kiosks getting along with the public?

I will grudgingly admit the lineups are getting shorter and the colourful language has decreased now that people know more about how to use them. But I still hate them.

The City guys are trying, but they can only do so much with what they’ve got to work with. The keypads are simply inferior to parking machines elsewhere. The screens are too low, and in sunlight they’re especially hard to read — Friday afternoon, people were squinting and cupping their hands around them trying to make out what the things were saying.

I know the screens are at that height to meet disability standards but they’re really awkward. The obvious answer would be a kiosk with two screens, one high, one low, and built to eliminate glare.

That, of course, would cost money and deflate the City’s profit.

The City is still looking at changing the screens to colour versions that will be easier to read, but nothing’s happening with that yet.

And the smartphone app that was supposed to be a major positive feature hasn’t appeared, either. Wilson and Duckworth aren’t sure when the app will be ready to go but they say it’s getting close.

“We want to make sure it’s right,” said Duckworth.

It’s too late now to go back — all the old meters have been ripped out and we have 94 of those infernal robots instead. But whether it’s coloured screens or smartphone apps, anything will be an improvement.

AROUND THE TOWN — Gone to the dark side, former Kamloops Daily News intern Melissa Lampman, who moved on to the Calgary Herald as web editor for a few years, is now digital communications advisor at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers… Michael Marchbank, who was the PR guy for Royal Inland Hospital many years ago, is in the news again. After leaving Kamloops he remained in the health administration field for a long time but is now public administrator with the B.C. Public Sector Employers Association. He’s the one who signed the letter telling teachers they’re going to be locked out next week… TNFC film commissioner Vicci Weller is going to the Big Apple in October for the Association of Film Commissioners International Cineposium, where she’ll market the Thompson-Nicola to New York-based film and commercial production companies and ad agencies… I ran into Nancy Bepple downtown on Friday and enjoyed catching up over coffee.

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