Upgrade all standard street parking meters to include the option of a warning text sent to your phone 10 minutes before the time you paid for is due to elapse.

To make this idea more exciting and incentivise you to arrive on time, a further upgrade is the Toaster attachment which, for a small extra fee, provides a single slice of hot toast timed to be ready when the meter runs out. Plastic knife, pat of butter and topping of your choice drop down from a chute at the side.
-- Phrontistery, Aug 04 2012

Texts and toast are far better http://www.standard...saults-7961597.html
[Phrontistery, Aug 04 2012]

Um, they don't /want/ you to get back before the meter expires. The ideal time for you to get back to your car, in their eyes, is right as you see the meter maid get back into his silly little three-wheeler just after leaving you a parking ticket.
-- ytk, Aug 04 2012


And just before he gets hauled back out for a little one-on-one quality time.
-- Phrontistery, Aug 04 2012


what ytk said. Also I was hoping for a bludgeon for parking meters.
-- Voice, Aug 04 2012


Some meterless parking does this - you phone with your location number and car registration, pay by phone, and you get a text 10min before your time is up. (I presume you can also pay for extra time without having to return to your car).

This makes more sense than fancy meters, as it requires no on-street hardware other than a sign with the location number and instructions on it.

However, on-street toast dispensers should be implemented independently.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 04 2012


My phone already has an app that warns me that a quantity of time is about to expire. Works even if I am out of service. In addition to that, I can fine tune the warning to give me more, or less, warning before the event. Come to think of it, my watch had the same app. Unless somehow I am paying the meter with my phone, this other solution that I currently use works better and easier than this idea.
-- WcW, Aug 04 2012


Splendid idea! The toaster attachment is BRILLIANT! No matter where you walk downtown, the pleasant smell of fresh toast is wafting through the air --- what's not to like? [+]
-- Grogster, Aug 04 2012


The toast thing wouldn't really work here in California, where half the population is perpetually on some sort of low-carb diet. Now, a parking meter that dispenses a steaming hot half-caf soy latte, on the other hand, would be a big hit.
-- ytk, Aug 04 2012



random, halfbakery