System for controlling metered parking

Abstract

A system for controlled meter parking of road vehicles comprising a parking meter and a portable terminal for use by a checker of the controlled meter parking. A keyboard allows drivers to enter vehicle data. A parking time limit is calculated as the function of the amount of money paid. The parking meter then stores pairs of data items, where each pair contains a vehicle data item and an associated parking time limit. In one embodiment, the amount of money is read from a memory card to allow the driver to receive credit for any time not used upon return to pick up the car. The system includes a clock for comparison with the parking time limits. When the comparison with the clock indicates that a parking time limit has expired, the associated pair of data items are deleted from the parking meter memory. A portable terminal allows a checker to enter identification data corresponding to a vehicle actually parked in one of the parking spaces. If there is no identification data in the parking meter memory corresponding to the data entered by the checker, a warning signal goes off on the portable terminal to alert the checker that the vehicle is in violation. Further, if the checker determines that the parking time limit in the portable terminal memory has expired by comparing that limit with a clock in the portable terminal, the warning signal all goes off.