We encountered several models of parking kiosks during our European travels, all generally similar to the new ones in Charlottetown.

The ones in Zagreb were, like everything else in Zagreb, covered with graffiti. But you could pay for parking with your cell phone.

The kiosks in Italy had no graffiti, and were quite elegant to boot.

I actually used one of the new Charlottetown kiosks yesterday, and it worked as advertised.

And I got to wondering: if the kiosks are all wirelessly in communication with some sort of central server, and the local parking cops are all outfitted with wireless gizmos of some sort, is there a system in place to do automatic “route planning” for the cops, based on areas where there are likely infractions given recent activity? Here’s a description of the Argus software that the City uses to administer the machines; it’s not clear how sophisticated it is in this regard.

Interesting tangent: the kiosks are made by a Swedish company.