In Suki With A Twist: Part One, I describe a concept for parking garage traffic control. A quite simple system, actually. John is returning one of Suki's cars, a vintage Jaguar, as soon as he enters the underground parking garage he is guided by arrows that illuminate in the floor and on the posts of the garage. Suki's car has a reserved parking space and the system reads the radio-frequency tag (RF Tag) in the license plate of the car. The tag still has a visible number and does not appear any different than a 2010 Virginia license plate.
John uses a different system for his vehicles. The paints he uses on his vintage muscle cars are infused with nano-tags that report corrosion, ruptures in the paint system, leaks, etc.
Today I got a little video of a 2010 parking ticket and the current technology behind that. The video is pretty bad (my fault for being a bad camera operator), but you may be able to see the handheld device the Arlington County Parking Officer uses to record information and issue the ticket to a silver Mercedes convertible, VA tag XJL-2173:
Part One
The driver arrives and is none too happy, for something he must have known was wrong when he parked there.
There are several competing views on the government charging for parking on the street. In my opinion, that street was already paid for and people in the area pay for its maintenance through various other taxes. This is especially true in Arlington County, VA, where the streets are paid for through fuel taxes and an annual vehicle tax. One problem that arises with free street parking is employees of the local businesses take those spots before patrons can get park there ans spend money. A counter to that is, the neighborhood has plenty of underground parking, at reasonable rates during the week, free on weekends and evenings. For my books, I think I will stick with plenty of "free" parking in the area.
In Suki I, John parks one of his muscle cars across the street from Suki's apartment over night.
Showing posts with label Ted's Montana Grille. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ted's Montana Grille. Show all posts
Monday, September 20, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Protests and Demonstrations on Suki's Street in Crystal City
From the original Suki Site:
Activist groups protest in Arlington, Virginia, frequently, against the “new plantation system”. In Virginia, the police cannot use “voyeur cam” evidence, nor government security cam evidence, as the only evidence against people for traffic violations. An officer must be present to issue a ticket. This results in a “misunderstanding” with drivers from DC and Maryland having the impression that they can do anything if a police officer is not present.
Northern Virginia and Manhattan have the highest concentration of voyeur cams in the USA and their images can be used in civil suits. When DC and MD drivers injure people or, in most cases, damage very expensive vehicles of their victims, they are held liable in VA courts. They frequently do not have enough insurance coverage to cover the damage and lose their homes. Then the protestors come in and disrupt traffic for hours or days because of the “plantation boss” who just “won” a house in DC, to pay for their ongoing medical treatment, of course.
Above is part of the 2030s setting for both Suki series novels. The budding Arlington County 'libertopia' is surrounded by jurisdictions full of people who are used to government handouts and not used to individual responsibility. When working through how the concept was going to be presented in the books I only mentioned a demonstration in front of Suki's apartment and the couple spends time in John's neighborhood of Rosslyn instead.
Below, some pictures from my friend, Kourtney "Coach" Young and his video record of Crystal City Under Siege, 12 March 2009:
See Suki's neighborhood on the map of Suki's World:
View Suki's World in Suki I; Suki II: Sunshine Returns; Suki III; Suki IV; Suki V and Suki: Fan Fiction in a larger map
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