Parking control

Our current smorgasbord of parking meters include some old, obsolete meters with damaged, unreadable lenses, the more modern ones with credit card options and the 25 minute, green zone meters. They sure need upgrading, modernizing and perhaps some uniformity.

Many of the multi-space green machines are often rendered hard or impossible to use by the blinding sun or by the inability of a 6-foot-3-inch frame person, to look into a display screen placed at a 4-foot-2-inch height level.

You often spot puzzled visitors or senior citizen standing in front of the machine looking around for help. After learning their crime may cost them $42, they rush to get their quarters or dollar bills.

SERCO, with their overly zealous approach to parking enforcement, does not let any grass grow under their feet … quickly attaching their love notes to our windshields. And if you want to take the user-friendly way to pay your ticket with a credit card, add a few more dollars to your bill. The year old reduction of parking spaces due to COVID-19, makes parking a real challenge. One of my recent take out meals jumped from $39 to $81. SERCO tagged me three minutes after my meter expired.

Let’s just hope the IPS Group’s machines may bring us better, user friendlier technology. Meantime, coffee or lunch on San Carlos’ Laurel Avenue is a tempting option.

Oscar López-Guerra

San Mateo