Some designs in life are ubiquitous; you don't need to dissect them. You just know what they are and what they are supposed to do. Parking meters were one of those things to me. You pulled into a parking spot, saw the familiar "head" of the meter that displayed how much time was left and you fed it coins. That is how it is supposed to work. That is, unless you want to increase the number of people that you give tickets to.
Last week I was in Cape May on vacation, and was the victim of a new design for parking meters. I drove into the main section of town and pulled into an empty parking spot. As I pulled in, there were no visual cues anywhere that I had to pay for parking. That is, there wasn't until I got back to my car and found the ticket on the windshield. That was my first clue that I was in a parking space that had to be paid for. That was my education by the town of Cape May that they want you to pay for parking. So instead of fifty cents going into their budget, they got $32 out of me.
How did this happen? You pull into a spot that has no number in white text on the black pavement. There isn't a familiar parking meter with a blinking red "expired" display on it. There isn't a sign nearby saying you have to pay for parking. There are zero visual cues to let you know that you are about to break the law.
Here is the despicable design of their parking system that I learned about AFTER getting ticketed. In the section I parked, there are 19 parking spaces. To let drivers know they have to pay for parking in these spaces they provide 2 signs for all 19 spaces, along with 2 computerized machines that accepts your money. If you don't happen to park near them, like I didn't, you are screwed. It turns out that there are numbers on the spaces, but not in the familiar place before you enter the spot. They place it in small letters on the gray curb, where you can't see it from your car. This turned out to be a real life I SPY game, and I lost.
It turns out that the design is so bad, the local newspaper, EXIT ZERO, has a centerfold story on it. The title of the story is, "An Encyclopedic Explanation on How to Handle Those Pesky New Parking Meters...Please Read!" The need for an article explaining how to use parking meters speaks volumes. Take a look at the article:
InteractionDesignBlog.com has a few articles on the design and usability of parking meters, but they assume that the person knows that the meter exists. I hope that they add this to their design recommendations for better parking meters. Here is the same image as above, but with the familiar visual cues we'd expect present to notify us to pay for the parking spot:
If someone came to me and said, "Please design me a parking meter system that will not be intuitive and drive up ticket revenues" I would have designed this exact system. If they wanted a system that was fair to vacationers visiting their town, you would have designed something familiar. According to the Cape May County Herald, the design-to-scam is working flawlessly with parking meter revenue up this year already by $26,365 to last year at this time. A number on the ground painted in yellow and green parking meters at each spot with a P on them would probably have impact on this number.
Other than the parking meter scam, Cape May is a wonderful place to vacation. A highlight was eating at 410 Bank Street, which had parking right next to it, with good old parking meters installed.
UPDATE: This article was published in the latest issue of Exit Zero magazine (Volume 6, #30, page 43). Here is the article in PDF format (2.78MB).
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8 comments:
Last year Cape May got me like this so over the 4th of July weekend I knew there was one parking meter per side. However after swiping my credit card I had no way of knowing if my card was accepted or not because receipts aren't issued from these meters. Of course I got back to my car and there was a ticket on it. Easiest way to solve the parking problem in Cape May.......DON'T VISIT CAPE MAY.
We received a $32.00 parking ticket after paying with a credit card. On the 4th of July we paid for 2 hours at 4:00pm and was back in 1. The meter was check and is working properly. Our credit card shows a charge. How do we challenge this? Perhaps there should be an investigation? We will not go back to Cape May, NJ
So far 2 votes for avoiding Cape May because of the parking meter design. I hope someone from there reads this and can see that their implementation really casts a poor light on the entire area.
Yes, I got a $32.00 ticket in Cape May and not happy about it. I'm not a parking scofflaw and would have gladly paid if there were intuitive, logical signing to do that.
I guess that Cape May has found a way to increase revenues with their HORRIBLE parking meter system!!! I'll bet that the designer of this system was selected based on their proposal to generate 10 times more parking revenue! I'm not opposed to paying for parking and would gladly had paid if I KNEW WHERE TO PAY! I stepped on the round placard in the curb - didn't see that. The sign is so small and so high up on the post you can't find it nor read it!
Some suggestions: (1) have signS at eye level that give instructions and POINT to the meter (most people expect a meter at their spot not a common meter, (2)remove the metal placards in the curb - they serve no purpose as people DON'T look DOWN to get instructions on how to pay for parking! and(3)remove the one (1)sign on the post and replace it with four(4)signs that face in all directions to ensure that no matter where you are you can see it!
While I like Cape May, I certainly won't rush back.
Paul
My husband and I visited Cape May just recently and we received a parking ticket after paying with a credit card also. We are definitely going to challenge the ticket, but we left that day questioning whether we should go to another shore with less hidden "fees." WE won't be visiting an unwelcoming city like Cape May anytime soon. We'll just take our business elsewhere.
Visit another seashore community. Don't go to Cape May, because even after you pay for parking with a credit card they'll still issue you a ticket! What an unfriendly place to visit.
I'm not sure if the town of Cape May realizes that the experience of their town is not just about Victorian architecture tours and clean beaches. People that are in no way trying to elude parking meters are getting fined and that is what they will remember about their vacation, not the weather.
Back on 10/03/09 I used my credit card to pay for parking. The parking machine did not give me a receipt, but stated that the credit card transaction was approved and I had 3 hrs of parking. Came back to my car 2.5 hrs later to find a ticket. Called the Cape May courthouse with this info. Clerk informed me that the parking machine was in working order. I am going to attempt to fight this in court, but in either case, I will not be coming back to Cape May. I also noticed more Police than before. Can anybody tell me why the Police is running a ticketing business at the expense of hard working middle class Americans, instead of going after criminals? Isn't that what we pay them for? NJ is just becoming a Police State all over.
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