The city of Royal Oak aims to remove its problematic high-tech parking meters, which include license plate readers. The issue arose because the meters did not account for Michigan's requirement of license plates only on the back of cars.
The residents wanted these gone the first week they were installed, and the city ignored them. Years later, it is an issue. Even other cities that used these types of meters in michigan and other states removed them at contract end. However, royal oak signed up for them and ignored the residents once again. Who got a kickback from this? Eliminated meter readers to try and save a penny. Shame on the leaders, and I hope when the terms are up in city council people remember the wasted money they spent to have these installed, the horribly written contract, and the money spent on the lawsuit to have them removed. It is time to change the city leaders.
Why it’s as if you can’t get out of the car, walk to the meter and buy time. Who at the City managed to forget Michigan hasn’t required front plates since 1981?? Avoidable First World problems.
I guarantee you a 10 year old would have immediately seen the problem with this but a whole company of engineers and executives plus city executives etc couldn't figure it out. 😂
The problem is that this system puts too much responsibility on the driver. One, backing in, and two, the driver checking to make sure the vehicle/plate was accurately identified. There's no way I would have gotten a ticket in this.
