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20 October 2009
KPRC-2 documents parking meter problems
LOCAL 2 INVESTIGATES has done a nice story on problems with the city's parking meters.
Parking Management Busybody Lilianna Rambo told reporter Stephen Dean that the city only has four mechanics total to repair broken meters, and it's not practical to bag every broken meter.
We're sure it's not about the revenue, though! *wink*
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/20/09 12:23 PM | General | Technorati | Comments (2)
30 November 2006
KTRK Political Blog: City tows legally parked vehicles
KTRK-13's Miya Shay reports that under Houston's parking laws, metered parking spots may actually be "rented" by citizens for the price of $11.50 per day. Interestingly, if a car is parked legally in a "rented" parking spot when the rental time begins, the meter is bagged and the car may be towed.
This isn't just a hypothetical. It happened downtown Tuesday, and Shay has posted photos of cars being towed on her blog.
That's ridiculous.
Here's hoping that Parking Management Busybody Liliana Rambo reads Shay's blog, and is already working to resolve what must be an infuriating situation for the poor people whose legally parked cars were towed.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/30/06 11:05 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
24 September 2006
Administration abandons threatened handicapped parking crackdown
The Chronicle's Alexis Grant reports that Liliana Rambo's bizarre proposal to cut down on handicapped parking abuse by eliminating designated free parking for individuals with legitimate handicapped parking permits has been shot down (for now):
The city has shelved a proposal to tighten restrictions on free parking at city meters by motorists displaying placards indicating they are disabled.
The idea, intended to help curb abuse of placards, has been put aside, at least temporarily, partly because of a negative public response, said Michelle Colvard, chairwoman of the Public Parking Commission's committee on disabilities.
Drivers using disabled-parking placards can continue to park all day for free at metered spaces downtown instead of facing the four-hour limit that had been proposed.
Several people with disabilities spoke against the proposed change at a public forum last month, saying it would hurt those it was intended to help.
Instead, the Parking Commission will focus on pressing the state Legislature to designate fraudulent use of a disabled-parking placard as a Class B misdemeanor. That would increase the maximum fine from $500 to $2,000.
"We really need to focus on getting the penalty increased, and there's other avenues that we can explore," said Colvard, who uses a wheelchair.
Exactly! If the goal is to crack down on people using handicapped parking placards fraudulently, then why was Liliana Rambo proposing to crack down on all handicapped parkers, even those with legitimate placards? Crack down on the abusers first, not legitimately handicapped people.
For whatever reason, neither Liliana Rambo nor Councilmember Michael Berry (who defended Rambo's bad proposal here) were quoted in this story. Here's hoping they're not still pushing the earlier proposal behind the scenes.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/24/06 12:37 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)
06 March 2006
Most of the Parking Commission members have been chosen
Whoa! At the very end of this Chron story on new downtown parking meters is a whole 'nother -- much more important -- story:
A new city Parking Commission will determine where meters are placed. The City Council approved the creation of the group last fall, and 13 of its 15 members have been chosen, Rambo said. The commission will comprise nine voting members with experience in the field and six non-voting members who represent the city, county and Metropolitan Transit Authority.
Hello! Thirteen of the 15 members have been chosen? Where's the story on THAT? Who are they? Who chose them? When did this happen?
It's almost Sunshine (in government) Week. Would the Chronicle or any other local media outlet care to shine a light on Houston's new Parking Commission?
RELATED: Blueprint Houston November 2005 interview with Liliana Rambo (Word doc.)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/06/06 11:07 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
25 March 2006
Houston's new Parking Commission will get to the bottom of this
Hart received the notice last month. It's a reminder to pay $25 for a parking violation. So this week, after paying $3 for parking in the lot across the street and standing in line, the judge told Hart what he already knew. There was a mistake and he wasn't the only one.
Four-thousand people got the same notice. Apparently the vendor the city uses to generate them had a computer problem.
"It was just a glitch of the system that happened at that particular time," Liliana Rambo with the Houston parking management division told us.
Case closed, right? Wrong. What about Hart's $3 that he paid for parking, multiplied by the others who may have done the same thing? .
"Three dollars times 4,000. That's $12,000 and that's just the bare minimum we're talking about," said Hart. "It could be more if people paid money without contesting it."
At first, he was told he couldn't get his money back
"The city is going to make money off of it," he said. "It's revenue they shouldn't be making."
We took the issue to the parking commission.
"We'll be able to refund him the three dollars for being in the parking lot," said Rambo.
How many people won't come forward for refunds? That little "glitch" could turn into a nice chunk of change for the city.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/25/06 08:28 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
12 December 2006
City tows legally parked vehicles (followup and rejoinder)
Remember a couple of weeks ago when KTRK-13's Miya Shay posted on her blog about a car that got towed because of the city's parking-spot-rental program, and we wondered if Parking Management busybody Liliana Rambo read it?
Well, it seems as if both Rambo and someone at the Chronicle reads Shay's blog, as the intrepid Hearst daily ran a similar story on Monday. It wasn't entirely a copycat story, though, as Ms. Rambo had to weigh in:
When a space is rented, a parking enforcement officer puts a no-parking bag over the meter the night before.
Spaces are free overnight, but paid parking resumes at 7 a.m.
So if a space is bagged during the evening after a car is already parked there, the driver is expected to move the car before 7 the next morning.
A local TV station reported recently that a driver returned to his car one morning to find it had been towed because parking enforcement officers had turned the metered space into a rented one overnight.
Rambo said the driver failed to return to his vehicle by 7 a.m., and his vehicle was towed about 9 a.m.
Had the meter not been bagged, he would have been ticketed for failing to pay the meter instead of being towed for parking illegally.
"That person was parked there more than 14 hours," she said. "You will not get your vehicle towed because we happen to bag a parking meter."
The Houston Police Department calls for a tow once it's requested by the person who rented the space, Rambo said.
That's nice of the Parking Management busybody to clear that up two weeks after the fact, but that's not exactly the situation that Shay described on her blog. Indeed, in a rather pointed post, Shay followed up on the matter yesterday:
Hey, this is a blog! It has a name! Or, heck, just write ABC 13! On top of that, the vague reference was inaccurate. I did not write that the meter was bagged overnight. In fact, there was a witness who told me the meter was not bagged until that morning. I know it's supposed to be bagged the night before, but we're all suppose[d] to do a lot of things.
Maybe in two more weeks, the Chron and Ms. Rambo will have another followup!
Anyway, just to make sure we don't get on Shay's bad side, once more that's Miya Shay's KTRK-13 Political Blog. ;)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/12/06 10:09 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
19 May 2008
KPRC-2 reports on abuses by Liliana Rambo's Busybody Brigade
KPRC-2 Stephen Dean reports on another of Mayor White's bad ideas in action:
A new state law intended to crack down on one type of parking problem is leading to other parking hassles, Local 2 Investigates reported Thursday.
Parking citation books handed out by the City of Houston are allowing security guards and everyday citizens to cause major inconvenience and frustration, leading some people to pay fines that they are not legally required to pay.
They are the same ticket forms that are issued to police and parking meter attendants throughout the city.
Colette Clift-Mayers of west Houston found out the hard way when she said a private security guard rudely informed her he was writing her a ticket.
She said she was parked legally in a private lot with a storeowner's permission when she was ticketed with an official Houston Municipal Court parking citation.
She said the man seemed power-hungry, able to hand out the same tickets being issued by police officers and parking meter attendants throughout Houston. The security guard routinely wears commando boots and drives a car that looks similar to a police cruiser.
"I believe that he sits in the parking lot and contrives to write tickets," she said. "I think that that is his whole purpose throughout the day."
Local 2 Investigates recorded the security guard in action at a strip center on Eldridge Parkway at Briar Forest Drive.
A review of municipal court records found he wrote some tickets for handicap parking space violators, which is legal.
But he also forced people to pay up or fight in court such violations as double parking, being parked "not wholly within a space" and parking in a fire lane. The ticket book issued by the city gives him much more power than other security guards, who would normally have to call police to have official citations written.
Houston's top parking official, Liliana Rambo, said "We will make sure that we call the volunteer in, and that we explain to the volunteer what they're doing wrong. If it's something that keeps on happening, we could revoke the privilege of that person writing those tickets."
She said citizens can appeal their tickets through a hearing officer at municipal court if they receive tickets from volunteers that have nothing to do with parking for the disabled.
Rambo said abuses are rare for the 450 volunteers trained to write handicap-parking tickets. She calls the city's program is a huge success that is being mirrored by smaller cities.
Asked whether the training for volunteers is truly getting the point across to volunteers that they have no legal authority to write tickets for any other violations, Rambo answered, "I believe so."
Liliana believes so?
Nice.
And if her belief doesn't conform with reality, well, you can always experience the fun of appealing your fraudulent ticket from her Busybody Brigade at muni court. Good times!
We believe we were right to question this bad idea of Mayor White from the start.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ Liliana Rambo's Busybody Brigade"> 05/19/08 10:58 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (21)
24 August 2005
Council approves Parking Commission Revenue Stream
KHOU-11 reports that Mayor White and his Council have approved a Parking Commission:
Wednesday morning, Houston's City Council approved the formation of a public parking commission.
One of the commission's duties will be deciding where to put about 1,500 new parking meters.
Council members said the commission would target busy areas and try to relieve their parking problems.
What about it, blogHOUSTON readers?
Do you feel better knowing that your Mayor and City Council are tackling the city's most pressing problems?
UPDATE: KTRK-13's Ilona Carson has a quaint take on the Parking Authority Revenue Stream. She seems to think that even though the city's current bureaucracy can't seem to correct the problems with parking meters near UH Downtown, the new parking bureaucracy will:
But help may be on the way. On Wednesday the Houston city council voted unanimously to form a parking commission. Its job -- to solve some of these problems.
"Bringing parking into a new era. We're bringing new technology, customer service," explained Liliana Rambo, the assistant director of the parking administration.
In the future, Rambo says you'll be able to pay meters with dollar bills, credit cards and cell phones, and dispute tickets online. For now, frustrated students can contest tickets at the municipal court administration building at 1400 Lubbock.
Rambo said, "We go and we check the meter, and we get back to the citizen about whether the citation was upheld or was void."
Those tickets typically run to about $25. Problems won't be solved overnight. The parking commission hopes to have a contract this fall, and roll out changes over the next five years.
This city's media are so accommodating when it comes to Mayor White's efforts to build new bureaucracies and new revenue streams.
Fine. We're with Miss Carson. Here's hoping the new parking bureaucracy gets the problems with the parking meters near UH Downtown solved in five years!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/24/05 10:17 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)
02 May 2005
Will the new parking meters always have babysitters?
Filling in for the now-departed Lucas Wall is Juan Alanis who today tells us how the downtown parking meter try-outs are going:
The jury is still out on which one of the seven vendors will win a contract to install new parking meters near the downtown courthouse complex. But as the five-week trial period comes to an end, the public's verdict appears favorable.
At least that's the consensus of people monitoring the use of the meters.
So, let's check out the public's view:
"I think it's wonderful," he said after having another driver explain to him how the Rhino model parking meter works.
[snip]
Lisa Vincent, one of the meter pollsters for the district, said most of the people who've come across the devices on her shift have been confused. Vincent has spent 16 hours in the last two weeks asking users about the meters.
[snip]
Eddie Kaplan, a downtown courier, is hopeful that the new technology will be easier to use, but he's not counting on it. Struggling with parking devices is an everyday part of his daily routine and one that has him skeptical of the machines.
[snip]
Wilbanks was more hopeful, even after having to resort back to coins. He tried inserting his credit card into the parking meter several times unsuccessfully before going back to his truck to get change.
"I think it's going to be a lot better when the credit card works," he said.
Sounds like everything's going swell. What happens when the helpful "meter pollsters" are gone and folks who are unfamiliar with downtown parking meters have to figure them out on their own?
And there's this gem:
The firm awarded the contract eventually will install 600 meters downtown by the fall and an additional 1,400 in the near future in the rest of the city, said Liliana Rambo, the newly appointed assistant director of the Municipal Courts Parking Management Division. She said determining factors in awarding the contract include cost, how the meter works and ease of repair service.
Before coming to Houston, Rambo negotiated the purchase of 89 meters at $8,000 each for the city of Hollywood, Fla. She hopes that experience will help her purchase the devices here for no more than $7,500 each.
We do too! It's very nice of Hollywood, FL to let Rambo practice her parking meter-negotiation-skills before coming to Houston.
And last, but definitely not least, Alanis' story mentions that Cubic Corp. is one of the companies whose meters are being tested, but doesn't mention that Metro is currently suing Cubic for failing to produce a functioning "smart card" fare system.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/02/05 01:58 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)
05 April 2006
Council approves "cutting edge" parking meters (updated)
City Council has approved a $15 million contract for 1,500 world-class parking meters. The company awarded the contract? ACS. We last heard of ACS as a red light camera contender, and in January, Metro chose ACS to come up with a new "smart card" fare system.
The Chronicle's Alexis Grant has today's parking meter story:
The Houston City Council today approved a $15 million contract for 1,500 tech-savy parking meters that will allow motorists to pay using cell phones, credit cards and dollar bills, in addition to the traditional coins.
[snip]
The first 750 meters are expected to be working within a year, said Liliana Rambo, assistant director of parking management, who is managing the project.
ACS State & Local Solutions Inc. of New Jersey was chosen as the vendor.
[snip]
Council members voted unanimously to approve the contract, praising Rambo for using a transparent process and creating a project that will pay for itself through parking revenues.
"This is what taxpayers want... a project like this that is fiscally sound," said Council member Adrian Garcia.
Does that mean the city's $15 million investment will be reimbursed with parking meter profits? Houstonians can only hope it really will be a system that pays for itself.
And what does (temporarily only a) Councilwoman Carol Alvarado think?
"We can say that Houston now is on the cutting edge when it comes to parking," said Council member Carol Alvarado.
It's too bad she wasn't interested in being on the cutting edge of management oversight in the Mayor Pro Tem's office.
ANNE ADDS MORE: I've been thinking about Council's praise for Liliana Rambo's transparency. Were there city-issued press releases about this parking meter contract? Were there public meetings, besides today's City Council meeting? Is our local media so inept that there really was all this transparency and we just missed it somehow? All I see is this press release issued today.
Maybe city officials have a different definition of transparency than I do.
UPDATE: This Houston Business Journal story says ACS will also install the wireless network the new world-class/cutting edge parking meters will require, and also includes information on progress in the mayor's proposed city-wide wi-fi network:
City officials are currently being courted by several companies interested in providing a wireless overlay for Houston.
So far, 65 companies have expressed interest in taking part in the implementation of the network, says Richard Lewis, the City of Houston's chief information officer.
"We were overjoyed to see the number of companies," Lewis says of the initial pre-selection proceedings being conducted by the city.
That larger wireless network contract is expected to appear before Houston City Council for approval by year end.
BLOGVERSATION: If it ain’t broke, spend $10K for a new one (Matt Bramanti)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/05/06 01:34 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (8)
22 March 2006
Downtown Houston parking trap?
Isiah Carey goes on a parking rant:
This is the site [sic] that just kills me...people parked at meters in downtown Houston that are victimized when the the meter maids show up out of no where with the blue bags. The clueless driver then finds himself at a meter that's now off limits. You get a fat $65.00 ticket. It happened to me a month ago. The city of Houston should place up signs saying "Hey Dummy, even though you paid for this spot ten minutes ago you're still breaking the law and you're gonna get a big ticket." I think it's a scheme by parking enforcement to dig deep in our pockets. City Council Members where are you - make an ordinance for proper signage warning us poor Houston drivers that you're rolling into a trap.
He's got pictures, so follow the link. Maybe Carey can stick a camera in the new Parking Commission members' faces and ask them what's up. Then they can put their hands up to shield their faces while they run to their cars and he can chase after them. It'll make for a great news story!
UPDATE: Carey follows up with a response from Liliana Rambo, the city's head of parking enforcement.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/22/06 07:08 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)
08 August 2006
Chron discovers world-class "downtown ambassadors"
The Chronicle runs a happy little article from Alexis Grant on the city's parking enforcement officers, or, if you will, the new "Downtown Ambassadors."
The story line seemed a bit familiar, however, and a little poking around turned up a July 19 story by KUHF-88.7's Jim Bell that covered the same ground. A Parking Management press release dated July 18 seemed to supply much of the information for both stories. Here's an excerpt from Bell's earlier story:
Don't call them meter-maids anymore. Writing parking tickets is now just one sentence in a new and longer job description. Parking Enforcement Assistant Director Liliana Rambo says they're now walking city's customer service reps.
"Parking Enforcement Officers are our daily link to customers. They see and they talk to citizens and residents and visitors every single day. We felt that they needed to be better equipped, and we wanted to give them additional resources to be able to answer the questions that they encounter day in and day out"
Rambo says at any given time, hundreds, even thousands of downtown visitors and newcomers need information and directions, and PEOs are walking libraries of information. They can answer questions about the city and its history, provide information and directions to downtown theaters, hotels, restaurants, and current happenings, but that's only part of their new job.
PEOs are now trained to provide crowd and minor traffic control for police officers when needed, and to respond to health emergencies with CPR and the ability to use Automated External Defibrillators. Rambo says PEOs are in position to be the first responder in many kinds of emergencies and situations.
"They will be the ones that probably witness an accident, a minor accident happen. They will be the ones that notice that there's a traffic light that is not functioning, and they'll be able to serve as traffic management until a police department response gets to the scene."
If the Hearst daily was a little slow to cover this olds, at least some of the Chron quotes were good:
Officers also brushed up on the city's parking ordinances. Several said they benefited from the communication sessions, which included training on how to avoid stereotyping and how to resolve conflicts.
Those skills are particularly important for parking enforcement officers who patrol Houston's streets, since the hardest part of the job can be dealing with angry drivers.
The techniques helped Pedro Santamaria, 25, strike a balance between being friendly and being stern with people he encounters on the street, he said.
Stern? Oh, wait, he must be referring to the planned crackdown on disabled parkers! Sometimes, you just have to let those disabled people know who's in charge.
The Chronicle story also includes this useful information:
The ambassador course, taught at the Houston Police Department Academy, is new for parking enforcement officers. Those who have participated wear a gold cord draped over the right shoulder of their blue uniform to symbolize their additional knowledge and skills.
[snip]
Several of the training hours addressed terrorism concerns, including how to identify and react to unusual activity or vehicles. Rambo said she's trying to organize follow-up training on homeland security.
Once that follow-up training is completed, will the Downtown Ambassadors get to wear a gold cord AND cool uniforms like Chief Lambert's elite METRO counterterror force? THAT would be world-class parking enforcement!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/08/06 12:19 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
08 December 2005
High tech traffic citation truck on the prowl
Back in November, Anne Linehan linked to a KHOU-11 story about a new $150,000 high-tech truck that's being used to track down cars with outstanding traffic citations.
Today, KTRK-13 posts a story from Tom Abrahams on the high tech toy:
The city now has a truck that can scan and check up to 800 license plates in an hour, running them against a so-called hot list. That's a list of vehicles with multiple tickets.
When it finds a match, it immediately notifies the officer driving the unit, who can then place a warning on the vehicle or boot it. That's speeding up what can be slow and tedious work.
Even though an off-duty HPD officer runs the auto view truck, the city of Houston doesn't actually own it. It's owned by the law firm that's in charge of collecting fines.
"We can look for stolen vehicles and recover those if we find those along the way," said William E. King with Linebargre, Goggan, Blair, and Sampson. "If there's an Amber Alert and there's a license plate associated with it, we can put that into the system and look for that."
The city likes the results so far, estimating 15 to 20 hits a week during two months of use.
"We're more efficient in terms of having those outstanding parking citations being paid," said Liliana Rambo with the city of Houston.
The current rig costs around $150,000, but given that every hit the system makes finds hundreds in fines, it very well could be money well spent. It's a nightmare for the delinquent, but a dream for taxpayers.
Part of me wants to make fun of the $150,000 traffic citation truck. Part of me wants to do a ride-along with the HPD driver/operator.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/08/05 10:30 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
31 March 2006
CoH: downtown parking is bad, be prepared to walk
I suppose this counts as KTRK-13's Parking Commission story -- a story that explains how downtown parking sucks and you might as well just walk:
The good news is that downtown Houston is getting more and more vibrant every day. The bad news is that with the growth comes growing pains. And that pain includes a perceived and problematic lack of parking. For anyone who's been downtown once or a thousand times, you know parking can be tough.
"It's very hard and inconvenient," said downtown driver Barbara Clark. "By the time you get where you're going, you're all sweaty and stinky."
"It's pretty crowded," agreed downtown driver Colin Amann. "It's hard to find and you've got to walk a fair piece to get to where you're going."
Hmmm, they forgot about MetroRail, I guess.
And in front of the courthouse complex, it could get worse even after construction is finished. One lot is about to go away, meaning roughly 200 fewer spots in favor of a new park in what is one of the busiest area of downtown.
"We're looking at being able to increase the number of on-street spaces," said Liliana Rambo with the city of Houston. "We're working with the public works department."
The city is also holding town meetings to coach suburbanites where to park when they come downtown and that if they can walk a couple of blocks, they'll find a reasonable space, despite the constant desire to find something closer.
Suburbanite meetings? Has anyone seen any info on those? And who wants to walk extra blocks in the middle of July and August to visit downtown, not to mention the courage required to drive anywhere around the Danger Train.
The city is also working on changing parking meters for the better. Their advice is to be patient. Be prepared to walk. And get to where you're going early just in case.
That's catchy! A new downtown slogan: Be Prepared to Walk.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/31/06 09:13 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
26 August 2005
Solving a downtown parking problem without help from parking authority
Following up on Mayor White's successful creation of a parking commission, the Chronicle reports that a downtown group has come up with a solution for evening parking, without the help of the new parking authority:
[T]he Downtown Entertainment District Alliance, which includes downtown merchants, has come up with a parking alternative aimed at eliminating parking woes: Those going to restaurants and clubs can now park free, with validation, at the JPMorgan Chase Center garage and Market Square Garage. "It's a win-win situation all around," said Bob Eury, president of Central Houston.
"It's a way to promote more convenient parking and promote downtown establishments that need more business."
The program takes advantage of an underutilized evening resource: parking garages.
"Now you know where to go and what to expect. It's like having two beacons," said Joe Martin, owner of El Centro and M Bar and a member of the alliance's board.
Parking lots in prime locations have been charging from $10 to $30 on weekend nights, he said, and there is gridlock caused by drivers waiting to get into lots.
Using the validated parking program, on Friday and Saturday nights from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m., drivers can park at the Chase or Market Square garages for $5. Eighteen bars, clubs and restaurants will credit a person's bill with the $5 fee.
[snip]
Early in 2005, the alliance conducted a survey to learn of any perceived problems among Houstonians when they come to downtown on weekends.
By far the biggest complaint among the 1,500 e-mailed responses was parking, Martin recalled.
"People were passionate about it. We got responses like, 'It's horrible,' 'Much too expensive.' 'I don't know where to go,' " he said.
In May, Councilwoman Carol Alvorado convened a group of stakeholders, including downtown merchants, Eury and Jordy Tollett, president of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, to address the parking issue.
Liliana Rambo, assistant director for the parking division of Houston, was brought in.
Their solution, the validated parking program, had a soft rollout on July 22 and 23.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/26/05 06:42 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
08 November 2005
Will HPD's new camera truck lead to confiscated cars?
There's a brand-new pickup truck decked out with video cameras cruising around town.
While people are making u-turns and gawking as it passes them, it seems that truck is helping the city make money and fight crime.
What kind of reaction has it been getting? "That's exactly what they say. What is it doing?" said HPD's Shawn Palin.
He calls the F-150 the AutoVu.
In the back, four cameras are mounted and read the license plate numbers of every vehicle they pass.
An onboard computer tells the officer if that vehicle has unpaid parking tickets.
"See, it's reading a plate right now. In my patrol car right now, I have to type the plate in. That slows it down. Plus the issue of I have to look at the computer and the keyboard to type things in. Now I can just drive by the vehicle and it'll pick it up," Palin said.
Not only does it save time, the city figures it'll help collect more money in unpaid fines.
"The vehicle is able to search more tags than the parking enforcement officers can do manually. It's an automated system, so we're being more efficient at our job," said Houston Municipal Courts Assistant Director Liliana Rambo.
My question is, when the high-tech truck finds a vehicle with unpaid fines, what happens? Is another ticket issued, or does something like this happen:
Several major cities are testing the AutoFind camera system for the purposes of scanning, ticketing, and sometimes seizing parked vehicles. Made by AutoVu in Montreal, Canada the $80,000 to $100,000 system uses a set of cameras mounted on a car and connected to a sophisticated optical character recognition program loaded onto a laptop. The software can examine 1,000 car plates per hour.
[snip]
Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, and Tampa have also either tested or deployed this technology which competes with Bootfinder, a system used by two Connecticut cities and Arlington, Virgina. New Haven, CT uses the technology for car confiscation and has generated $1 million in revenue in six months by seizing 1,800 cars. One woman had her Dodge Neon towed right out of her driveway while she was in the kitchen. She only owed $85 in back taxes.
Should Houstonians get ready to have their cars confiscated for unpaid parking tickets? Now THAT'S a world-class revenue stream!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/08/05 09:27 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (4)
03 May 2009
Channel 2 investigates parking at HPD headquarters
Back in 2005, Mayor White decided he wanted a parking authority, and his right hand voiced the reasons why it was needed:
"You really need an element, an entity, an authority that focuses strictly on parking, on enforcement, on the meters, making sure that they're all working, responsible for valet zones, cab zones, and enforcements of those ordinances," said Carol Alvarado, Houston Mayor Pro Tem.
Last week, KPRC-2 Local 2 Investigates publicized a weeks-long investigation of the parking situation around HPD headquarters. The result: HPD employees think rules are for other people:
Parking spaces were often scarce or non-existent for downtown visitors in a five-block area surrounding the 1200 Travis headquarters, as officers and other employees displayed "Official Police Business" or "Police On Duty" signs in their windshields.
"It's not fair," said Quentin Thompson, who struggled to find a space to have lunch in the area.
"It's an abuse of authority, I think," he said. He was forced to park in a more expensive $8 lot since not a single space was open on Clay Street, one block south of the headquarters high-rise.
Local 2 Investigates recorded license plates and vehicle positions over a three-week time frame, finding entire streets off limits for other public parking on some days. Each day, dozens of HPD employees' cars remained in the same spot without moving for the entire day.
"No comment, please don't do this," said one officer whose pickup truck was a daily fixture, as Local 2 Investigates approached with a camera to ask questions.
Other employees tried some far-fetched tricks to avoid answering questions after word began spreading that news cameras were nearby.
At least three employees walked more than a block out of their way. One officer had unlocked his car, but then rushed away from the camera. One Burglary and Theft Division officer even pretended his car was unfamiliar to him, as he tried to avoid questions about his daily parking routine. He walked a block out of his way, then zig-zagged to jump on a METRO Rail ride to avoid answering questions. He was spotted in his car days later, but he had found a new parking space.
Other employees slammed their doors and sped away without a word as they were questioned.
And what does the city have to say about it?
Mayor Bill White reacted, saying, "People ought to be obeying the policy of the department, period."
Which is...what, exactly? Well, after Channel 2 confronted HPD, a new memo was sent out explaining the department's parking policy for employees.
And where, pray tell, has the Houston Parking Authority been all this time? After all, these are metered spaces that could be pulling in revenue for the city:
On some blocks, each of the 17 to 19 spaces were occupied by police employee cars, but those spaces could be generating $1.25 per hour for the city, or even more if cars leave early and new cars arrive.
The Houston Parking Management Division provided records showing the parking meters that are tied up with police employee cars are pulling in a fraction of the revenue that other meters are collecting.
While some meters, which cover an entire side of a street, record 41 transactions or more each day, the meters near HPD headquarters only recorded eight or nine transactions during the entire day from a sample week in April.
Liliana Rambo, the city's parking management director, issued a written statement.
"We recognize that there needs to be an improvement of the management of the curb space in the area around Police Department Headquarters. We recognize that an alternative solution needs to be developed for the parking of vehicles driven by police personnel. We are working in collaboration with the police department in putting a plan in place to solve this issue."
She did not address a question e-mailed to her by Local 2 Investigates, inquiring about why her enforcement personnel seem to have stopped patrolling the areas heavily occupied by the police employee cars.
Has she been hanging out with Clarence Bradford?
Recall in the past Ms. Rambo tried to crack down on legitimate handicapped parking, for the purpose of creating "more turnover so that everybody has access to that particular parking space [...]" But when it comes to the metered spaces around HPD, she hasn't been so interested.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/03/09 07:08 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (6)
09 June 2009
Making Houston even more inviting
See if this reminds you of a circular firing squad:
Warning: More tickets, tows, boots on the way for Houston cars
Parking scofflaws who drive under the radar are more likely to be nabbed under a system that received a Houston City Council committee’s blessing Tuesday.
The proposed $1.6 million upgrade to the city’s parking management databases would let enforcement teams view parking citation information on a mobile handset, so officers could immediately “boot” or tow a vehicle if it had too many unpaid citations.
And:
HPD: Many towed cars get lost, misplaced
On Monday, HPD Captain Williams Staney told the Council Committee on Public Safety at Houston City Hall that their system was not working.
He said that 135,000 vehicles are towed from illegal parking spots and because of traffic violations each year in Houston.
Captain Staney says that HPD has one phone number that drivers and tow truck companies both call for information. He said that phone lines get an average of 845 calls each and every day.
HPD admits the bottleneck can lead to confusion, data mistakes and very long wait times for Houstonians wanting to find out if their vehicles were either stolen or towed without their consent.
“The call takers and data entry people get overwhelmed with the whole amount of vehicles being entered but at the same time they have people calling in looking for their vehicles,” said Frankie Rash of Fast Tow Wrecker Service. “It can be very overwhelming,” he said for both his staff and for police.
The solution? A $1.3 million web-based towed vehicle reporting management system, of course!
So, here we have Liliana Rambo wanting to spend $1.6 million on new technology to ticket, boot, and tow more cars (she promises a one million dollar return on the investment for the city), and then we have HPD wanting to spend $1.3 million on new technology because the department admits it cannot keep track of all the towed vehicles for which it's responsible. Got that? Revenue-wise, the city should make out quite well. Residents? Not so much.
The big exception to all this is around HPD headquarters, because there is absolutely no ticketing, booting, or towing going on there.
COMPLETELY UNRELATED: City, vendor negotiate agreement on muni courts computer system fiasco; A red light camera ticket nightmare; Channel 2 fixes another red light camera ticket error
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/09/09 06:52 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (7)
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