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...
A cashless society is coming and you won't be able to do anything without a "chip".
I have a garden and some chickens
I refuse to play by the electronic rules.
Apple iPhones are now mandatory. Film at 11.
NY ping
If Buffalo would ever clean up its corrupt politics, they wouldn’t need the income from the parking meters.
People without a smartphone are a minority (small and getting smaller). Shouldn’t they bend to the will of the majority?
We are a Republic not a democracy.
I live near Laguna Beach, CA. That sleepy little town has become Rich off their Parking Meters.
They have tens of millions in the Bank.
Second best thing to taxing Marijuana.
OTOH...IF you were beings serious.........
If you’re tight on money a smart phone would be the first place to cut.
I don’t have a smartphone.
I am also old and will make a REALLY big stink if this comes to my area.
.
that’s why I dont like heading down there to meet someone unless it’s at their house with extra parking.
These days, you have to make smart decisions about the amount of ‘noise’ you allow into your life - if you want to have any real life at all.
I love the computer, especially word-processing. For some of us who do constant editing and rewrites, it makes the grunt work of writing so much easier and less a distraction from the mental flow. I also like being able to see things and access information from all over the world that I couldn’t see otherwise.
And I have a little cell phone; but in the many years that I’ve had it, I’ve probably made six or eight calls on it - usually to call a cab. I just use it to listen to radio, and to have in case of emergency. I don’t even carry it most of the time.
I’ve never once experienced any lack because of this refusal to become thoroughly ‘au courant’ electronically.
The Beast of Revelation.
Back in the seventies, Buffalo had a particularly bad lake effect snow storm which shut down the city. Toronto volunteered the use of some street-clearing equipment to help Buffalo out. Buffalo agreed and when they got the streets cleared, sent Toronto a bill for the expenses.
My only phone is a VOIP landline. I’ve only spoken on a cell phone a few times. The first time I did, I activated the phone and waited for the dial tone. And waited...
"...parking via smartphone app..."
Just like the brilliant city council here. They did away with the tornado sirens and made the alerts by cell phone text messages .... brilliant, just to keep from waking up the employees at the city departments. They paid hundreds of thousands for a system that will fail and scrap one that worked. But these are the same people that paid for radio systems for the fire department that couldn’t communicate with the police or hospitals.
I have had a cellphone for 24 years but never got a smart phone.
As a woman I loved the security it gave me when driving at night.
.
Every smartphone should come with a blue pill.
Problem solved.
I hate that garbage.
I just got a new “smart”phone (ie. mini computer) to replace my “flip”.
But, I noticed this nonsense in DC some 4 years or more back.
Not only do I not like paying this way, but to follow the directions is a pain in the butt. Why not just straightforward cash?
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