2006年VOA标准英语-US Firm Tests Smart Parking Meters

By George Dwyer
Washington, DC
07 August 2006
 
watch Parking Meter report

A small company in the eastern U.S. state of Maryland has begun field-testing a new kind of parking meter. It uses sonar detection technology to determine when an automobile¹ has left a parking spot, then resets² its timer to zero, eliminating any leftover³ minutes. VOA's George Dwyer reports some city governments expect to collect new revenue from the "smart" meters. But many motorists say they feel like their pockets are being picked.

-------

Finding curbside parking in most downtown shopping districts can be time consuming and frustrating⁴. Space is valuable and scarce. So local governments use parking meters to collect user fees. The meters also serve another purpose.

 
Glen Hellman 
  
"They are for generating revenue, but it is not their primary purpose. The primary purpose of street meters is to change habits," says Glen Hellman, Chief Executive Officer of IntelliPark. His firm has developed a new kind of street meter. He says it will help change people's parking habits by encouraging them to keep their curbside stops short.

New parking meters have a mini-computer  
  
"This is really a minicomputer, the same type of mini-computer that you use in a PC [Personal Computer] -- just applied⁵ toward a meter."

Hellman's firm is field-testing the Intellimeter outside Washington, D.C.  It uses sonar detection technology.

"Two things our meter does," says Hellman. One is when a car leaves, we recognize the car left, and if there is any excess time left on the meter, we zero the meter out."

Hellman says that can increase a city's parking meter revenues by 20 to 50 percent. The second thing his smart meter does is prevent people from "feeding" meters to hold on to a single spot for hours on end.

"We know what time the car got here. We know it has been here two hours. And when a person comes here and tries to feed the meter we won't allow that. We will keep the quarter."

But not everyone agrees this is a good idea. One driver said, "Here they are charging twice for the same amount of time.  And that to me is taking too much money out of your pocket. That's pure graft⁶."

She thinks "they make enough money now"   
  
Another said, "They make enough money on parking meters as it is, thank you very much."

 
Says the new meters are "a rip-off" 
  
"I mean, this is a rip-off." said another man being succinct⁷.

Hellman points out that his device has driver-friendly features as well. For example, the Intellimeter can be programmed to grant a few minutes worth of free parking when a new car pulls into a spot.

"We recommend to the community when a meter comes you offer a free grace period. So, between five and 15 minutes can be offered as a grace period on these meters."

And he says, once computer processing power is installed in meters, networks can be created that will provide additional benefits to cities and citizens.

"Our next generation meter incorporates a low powered radio that communicates with a centralized radio that has Internet connectivity, and with that you can unleash⁸ all kinds of features," Hellman told us.

One example - meters that phone customers to warn that their meter time is nearly up.

One man liked that feature. "I think it's a great idea for the simple reason: I ran out of time on my meter, and then we have a cell phone, the meter would have called us and tell us that we ran out of time, and it would have given us extra time on the meter so we don't get a parking ticket."

Don't expect a phone call from your local parking meter any time soon, however. The new "smart" meter is still in the testing phase.

1 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

2 resets   

v.重新安放或安置( reset的第三人称单数 )；重拨（测量仪器指针）；为（考试、测试等）出一套新题；重新安置，将…恢复原位

参考例句：

• Regenerating the map resets the statistics in the Info screen. 重新生成地图时，信息窗口的统计数据会重置。 来自互联网
• This resets CSS values that browsers tend to set for you. 用于重置页面，对没有指定css属性的页面元素指定缺省值。 来自互联网

3 leftover   

n.剩货，残留物，剩饭；adj.残余的

参考例句：

• These narrow roads are a leftover from the days of horse-drawn carriages.这些小道是从马车时代沿用下来的。
• Wonder if that bakery lets us take leftover home.不知道那家糕饼店会不会让我们把卖剩的带回家。

4 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

6 graft   

n.移植，嫁接，艰苦工作，贪污；v.移植，嫁接

参考例句：

• I am having a skin graft on my arm soon.我马上就要接受手臂的皮肤移植手术。
• The minister became rich through graft.这位部长透过贪污受贿致富。

7 succinct   

adj.简明的，简洁的

参考例句：

• The last paragraph is a succinct summary.最后这段话概括性很强。
• A succinct style lends vigour to writing.措辞简练使文笔有力。

8 unleash   

vt.发泄，发出；解带子放开

参考例句：

• They hope to create allies to unleash against diseases,pests,and invasive species.他们希望创造出一些新群体来对付疾病、害虫和一些有侵害性的物种。
• Changing water levels now at times unleash a miasma of disease from exposed sewage.如今，大坝不时地改变水位，从暴露的污水释放出了疾病瘴气。