In case you hadn’t noticed, I complain about everything and the ease of operation of parking equipment is no exception. I railed late last year about the problems average citizens have with such equipment and frankly, the difficulty of even seeing the displays.
Chad Randall and Lisa Bahr at IPS jumped me as I was walking around the almost empty hall during set up Sunday and showed me their newest product, a completely redesigned meter that takes credit cards (as does their existing one) but has a new set of buttons and a display that is twice as large as their existing unit. Lisa sent me a picture (see below) but I will put one up later today when I can take one comparing the two meters. They are launching the new product here at the IPI and it will be on the street later this year.
They jokingly told me that every time they saw me all I could do was ‘bitch, bitch, bitch’ about their display and human interface. I would like to take responsibility for the change, but I’m sure that Chad and his company had this design in mind for quite some time.
I’m told that the completely re engineered new design takes considerably less power to run and therefore actually extends battery life. Good move, IPS.
JVH
