Posted on 01/03/2019 8:02:08 PM PST by yesthatjallen
Cindi Eckis doesn’t have a smartphone, and she doesn’t want one.
“It makes my life simpler,” the Cheektowaga retiree said.
But sticking with her flip phone will make it tougher for her and other low-tech motorists to find a place to park along some streets of downtown Buffalo.
A new parking policy being rolled out by city officials adds parking zones where the only way to pay to park is through the Buffalo Roam parking app.
Blue "Pay by app only" signs went up earlier this week on Cobblestone District streets. "Pay from your phone," the signs read. "Download Buffalo Roam."
Eckis doesn't understand why someone should have to carry a smartphone to park on some downtown streets.
“I just don’t want to live in the Matrix,” she said Thursday.
Last week, the Buffalo Common Council unanimously approved Mayor Byron W. Brown’s “Downtown Parking Access Plan. The plan included doubling of metered parking rates to as much as $2 an hour, ending free parking on weeknights and weekends and adding hundreds of new paid street parking spots. The parking plan was met with an uproar of criticism, with more than 21,000 people signing an online petition started by a downtown restaurant worker protesting the changes.
On Wednesday, city officials offered something of a compromise — allowing free street parking to continue on weeknights and weekends when there are no major concerts, shows or games at major downtown venues.
The Buffalo Roam app debuted in May 2017. The idea was to provide a convenient way to pay at all of the city’s 3,900 on-street paid parking spots. The app also warns users when their time is about to expire with a text message 15 minutes before time runs out and gives them the ability to extend their parking sessions from their phones.
The app prompts users to input their credit or debit card information to pay the parking costs, along with an additional 10 cent fee.
Parking Commissioner Kevin Helfer acknowledged the Roam-only zones exclude some motorists.
"We don't have a system that can be everything to everyone all the time," Helfer said during a news conference at the corner of Perry and Mississippi streets Thursday.
Most people have smartphones, Helfer said. About 77 percent of Americans own a smartphone, according to a study released in February by the Pew Research Center. And for those people, the app is far more convenient than having to remember to carry around quarters or walk back and forth to a pay-and-display machine down the block to get a parking receipt.
ETC...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metromelt
"The snow machine melts approximately 136 tonnes (134 long tons; 150 short tons) of snow per hour using air/fuel combustion to heat water and mix it with snow in a melting tank. The melted snow continuously drains from the tank, as it overflows, out of the melter and into storm drains or sewers along the road. The machine is self-propelled and self-loading, and resembles a large truck-mounted furnace with a snow-gathering conveyor belt at the front end."
I thought it heated the snow after it was scooped up, but I could be wrong about that.
Buffalo has the most awesome food, though.
Thanks
Apple iPhones are now mandatory. Film at 11.
____________________________________________
Just like Obamacare...
The thing that was beautiful about that is that there was nowhere to put the snow. Being able to pour it down the sewer was a Godsend. Buffalo was literally buried in snow that was so packed down that you could not even leave a footprint in it.
I know. I tried. It was packed hard as ice.
I remember trying to find my friend’s sister’s car and all that you could see of it was the tip of the antenna. It was a convertible.
Got destroyed.
I do
This is like some old fool saying “I don’t want to pay for electricity! Why should I when I have candles?!”
No, it’s about the government taking only one form of payment, not giving you the option to use ‘legal tender’, credit or debit card, and forcing you to use their government app.
I'm no spring chicken myself but I do embrace the mobile technology. I love downloading and using apps that make my life easier. Banking, paying for things, buying tickets and having them display on my phone, finding the nearest Dunkin Donuts and having the app take me there, etc.
I would love an app to pay for my city parking. I have no desire to scrounge around for quarters to feed a meter and then get a parking ticket because I couldn't get back to the meter with quarters fast enough. To me, that's a hassle I don't need.
If you just need it for emergencies, you don't even need to have time on it. The phones are required to be able to place 911 calls whether they are under contract or not. As long as the battery is OK, you're good to go.
“”We don’t have a system that can be everything to everyone all the time,” “
Cash always used to work, all the time, for everybody.
Thanks.
Imagine the outrage if they used this app to vote, It would last two seconds and be called racist.
You'll make a good loyal member of 'the state'. No privacy and no freedom to use cash, credit or debit card for the convenience of not having to fumble for change.
When you lose the option to make choices you no longer have choices.
OK.
St. Louis has a similar system that somehow lets out of state drivers pay but not show up as paid on the police’s system. I have seen this in other cities as well. Just a little too convient that out of staters cannot hang out for a day to correct the issue. In St Louis the tickets can only be contested in person which can take hours at their inner city office.
Coming. Demands for a smartphone for all as an entitlement. You’ll be paying for a smartphone as well as the EBT cards.
Government knows how to take money from people. It doesn’t do much of anything else very well at all.
It doesn’t matter if you have a smart phone or not - simply not wanting to install or use an app is enough reason to have another way to pay for parking. People have got to take a stand against this.
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