Video: New technology catches more parking violators

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SEATTLE - Free parking spaces in Seattle are slowly becoming a thing of the past. The city has added more than 1,300 new pay parking spots just this year and, thanks to some new technology, the number of parking tickets is up dramatically.

Call him the fastest draw in the West. Not with a gun, but with a painful tool nonetheless – one that inflicts shots of $35 to a parking violator's wallet.

Seattle Parking Enforcement officer Minh Doan doesn't even have to get off his Segway scooter to deliver the ticket and he does it all in seconds.

The department reports a 25 percent ticketing increase in the Capitol Hill area this year over last. The director says his department is fully staffed for the first time in years with 6 Segways plus 6 bike officers on parking patrols.

The city's $1.6 million investment in upgrades, such as new ticket machines, has already more than paid for itself.

Officer Aaron Paston estimates that on his bike he writes about a third more tickets each day now than before.

"I can whip out a ticket in literally seconds," he said.

While the new technology has resulted in more tickets, it's also credited for improving public relations, and the Segways do not use gas and have a lower maintenance costs.

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Seattle Parking Enforcement officer Minh Doan doesn't even have to get off his Segway scooter to deliver the ticket and he does it all in seconds.

SDOT has added 1345 new paid parking spaces through July 2008. Westlake Avenue North has 415 new paid spaces, and South Lake Union has 930 new paid spaces.

SDOT reports that parking revenue goes into the city's General Fund, where it pays for basic city services like the police, fire department, and library services.

SDOT is engaged in conversations about parking with the Denny Triangle, Uptown Triangle, and Fremont communities. Pay stations are just one parking management tool that might be utilized.

Seattle Police's Parking Enforcement Director, William Edwards, reports that the areas most suited to bike, Segway, and soon new T3Motion units, dubbed "Chariots," include:  most of downtown, South Lake Union, the International District, Capital Hill (specifically the Pike/Pine and Broadway corridors), Fremont and the U.W.