h2. You Can Park, But You Can’t Hide
The curbside arms race between motorists trying to overstay their welcomes and parking enforcement officers trying to make them follow the rules seems to be tilting decisively toward the enforcers. The Seattle Police Department has begun deploying a dazzling array of new and repurposed technologies to catch wayward parkers. Just in time; the city’s decision not to build park-and-rides by the new light rail stations has boosted what William Edwards, SPD’s parking enforcement director, calls “park and hide” commuting—parking free on residential or industrial streets and taking transit downtown—and stirred complaints from SoDo, Columbia City, and other neighborhoods. To them and to others trying to game the system, Parking Enforcement has a simple message: We’ve got your number, and your GPS coordinates.
Bicycle (Volcanic Model)
Where Used Pay-station areas downtown and International District, Restricted Parking zones around Southeast Seattle lightrail stations.
Cost $2,760, including clothing and additional gear.
How Many 10
How It Stacks Up Fastest, most efficient (as well as cheapest and greenest) way to patrol dense areas. Can ride lightrail between stations. Officers who volunteer to ride the bikes loves them. Relatively hazardous; one officer injured wrist in a training fall, and another received scrapes when hit by a car.
Segway
Where Used Pay-station areas downtown and in other close-in neighborhoods.
Cost $6,414
How Many 7
How It Stacks Up Proven efficiency: can climb Seattle’s hills, navigate among parked cars, boost officer productivity. Some officers tip and fall up. Must plug in to recharge.
T3 Motion Electric Mobility Vehicle
Where Used Downtown, International District
Cost $14,454
How Many 3
How It Stacks Up The chariotlike T3 appears promising but is still in trial. With three wheels, feels more stable than Segway but is less powerful; can’t climb hills. No wait while charging; battery packs swap out.
Go-4 Interceptor Scooter
Where Used Throughout Seattle
Cost $30,000+
How Many 50+
How It Stacks Up Three-wheeled gasoline-powered scooters replaced familiar Cushmans seven to eight years ago; some now being mothballed as new vehicles are phased in. Theoretically safer (with roll ball) but less efficient in pay station areas than bicycles, Segways, and T3 chariots. Sliding doors let officers chalk wheels from the seat, but they must disembark to read pay stickers and leave tickets.
Autovu License-Plate Reader From Genetec
Where Used Time zones in SoDo, Ballard, West Seattle, U District, Queen Anne
Cost $65,000
How Many 2 (in trial)
How It Stacks Up Replaces traditional tire chalking. Its camera, computer, and global positioning system automatically read, record, and compare license plates, tire positions, and GPS coordinates (like reading fingerprints) to spot vehicles overstaying time limits. Gathers data on parking patterns. Promising results, but costly.
Published: November 2009
One road-smart reader has already noted a glaring omission from our “smart biking” tips, especially from the gear list in Tip #2. It seemed so obvious we didn’t bother mentioning it. As Tom Vanderbilt notes in ‘Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do,’ it even makes actuarial sense to wear a helmet in a car (if you can stand the funny looks). But at least a motorists have airbag, seatbelt, and the car itself between their skulls and the pavement.
I love all the insider tips in this package, and thought the “Great Race” was especially enlightening. Being a bus commuter (and fair-weather bike commuter), I do have one pet peeve: If you go to a movie, coffeehouse, grocery store or concert, you would not even consider cutting in line in front of those patrons who were there first. So why is it that bus riders seem to think it’s perfectly fine to reach the bus stop right as the bus is pulling up and jump on right in front of those who have been waiting for 15 or 20 minutes? It’s too bad there’s not a “take a number” system that rewards those who have been waiting in the cold.
Look way ahead, to the next stoplight and beyond, and ease up accordingly. Whether to employ the controversial “pulse and glide”—coasting with engine off, minus power steering and braking—depends on skill, conditions, and car, suggests Kinney. It works better with manual than automatic transmissions, which don’t lubricate with the engine off.