Not carrying coins is your own fault, not the system's. You can't refuse the analog solutions and then complain the digital ones are too digital.

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mikepurvis 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I guess, but no one carries coins, and the machine doesn't accept them. Me not having coins changed nothing about this situation.

	▲	inigyou 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You not having coins is one half of the problem. We can't pretend we don't tolerate the abuses of the digital money system, while not carrying analog money - it's completely hypocritical.

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stackghost 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Digital solutions don't have to be abusive.

Where I live the city commissioned its own mobile app for parking, and all numbered parking spots in the city use that app.

There are private lots that use Honk or Robbins or whatever, but the municipal lots and all parallel parking spaces downtown all use the same single app and the revenue goes to the city.

The city parking app works reasonably well, no ads, it just does one thing. If you leave early you open the app and hit "stop parking" and it only charges you the 37 cents or whatever that you actually consumed. It sends you a push notification when your parking is about to expire. And if you don't like the app for whatever reason, you can still pay with a card at the pay machines on every block. It's unglamorous, but it's fantastic technology.

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mikepurvis 23 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

That seems reasonable. The kiosk is still there to pay with cards or cash directly, but the app/website lets you skip that, avoid printing a slip, maybe buy a pass or something.

The risk is mainly that down the road someone looks at the usage numbers and goes hmm, well the kiosk is only getting used 5% of the time, let's just discontinue supporting it.

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inigyou 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That's still one more app, that's not any better if the problem is needing an app.

	▲	stackghost 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		See my edits. You don't need the app but the experience is strictly better with it. One of the rare cases where the app is value add.