Glitch in France meant free parking in Kamloops
Hooded kiosks gave parkers a break.
NEWS — A downed server in France meant free parking in downtown Kamloops on Wednesday.
About 11 a.m., lineups at the City’s almost-new parking kiosks began growing, and so did the frustration of people trying to park.
“The only way to fix them is with a sledge hammer,” said one driver as he waited in line at Victoria Street.
Finally, they all gradually gave up.
Bylaw services manager Jon Wilson said the server was down from about 11 until around 12:30, so the City gave up on the kiosks for the day, too, pulling hoods over as many of the 94 kiosks as they could and declaring a free parking day.
The operation of the kiosks is controlled by a server owned by Parkeon, which manufactures them and distributes them in Canada through Parklink.
Wilson said the computer system does everything from monitoring the paper supply in each kiosk to counting how many coins are being deposited.
He estimated the City lost about $2,000 in revenue because of the outage.
Kamloops was not alone. Wilson said parking kiosks “right across Canada and worldwide” were affected by the server problem, though he didn’t know how many that meant in total.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Being a computer tech, and knowing how systems are made, that is a AWFUL system.
I was going to complain about the latency with these machines, now I know where it comes from. I now understand why the “please wait” is on my screen all the time…..
Basically every thing you type in gets relayed Wirelessly either to a place in Kamloops (or direct), then Forwarded to the server in France, and back to you. Computers and networks are very fast, but, delays overseas will add up over time, and this sort of application would defiantly see improvement if say moved into our own local data center.
Also means they are tied into the system for life, paying absorbent fees just for the system.
This also means, even though you think your data is safe, it is now being sent across borders (encrypted we hope), routed through many many networks not controlled by both party’s, and then ending up on their server with everyone else’s information!! :)
Kudos to Kamloops and Counselors for approving this cost effective system. Yeah Right. We are getting a hose job. The Delay would have been a no-go for me, the fact I can’t run my own system, another no-go, and the whole cost, was just a waste.
Thanks again.
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At the meeting prior to the approval of this new system, city’s management especially Jon Wilson, were well warned about potential downfalls. Off course they/he snubbed at them warnings. Now we start to see some of them potential downfalls coming true. Council was at the meeting.
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Surely you jest Gisela. These kiosks and the provider were not well thought out at all. They were only put in because some moron at city hall thought that Kamloops should be keeping up with the Joneses. Council, as usual , just rubber stamped the idea, and its costs without even bothering to think the whole idea through.
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City hall had to do something to please the downtown merchants. As Gay Pooler put it, it’s all about the “fabulous” experience of going downtown Kamloops.
Gay Pooler has to go, Jon Wilson has to go, most of council has to go.
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No doubt there is an arrangement in place to see the City compensated for lost revenue by the kiosk supplier?
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