San Francisco...parking fees hiked! Slew of new meters for Bay area...

Smart meter!

Yesterday morning, I tossed on my jeans and a t-shirt, laced up my sneakers, and sprinted down the street for my morning cup of java.

An article about parking fees - on the front page of the Examiner - caught my eye.

OMG!

The feature jogged my memory.

I forgot to move my car out of a "no parking" zone.

In a scant few minutes, a street-cleaner would be cursing me out loud, and a snarling meter maid would be careening up to the curb to slap a parking violation on the windshield of my beloved SUV.

Ouch!

So, I passed on the brew, and streaked down the street to alter destiny.

Whew! 

Mission accomplished.

As to the report in the Examiner, well, it wasn't good news for locals (or tourists either).

A proposed hike in meter fees - estimated to rustle up a million or so bucks a year - may be given the green light.

But, there are other changes on the horizon that may turn the bay area into a battle zone.

When it comes to parking, at least!

For instance, parking hours may be extended to Sunday in five highly-trafficked neighborhoods.

And, approximately 5400 snazzy new meters will be installed, with state-of-the-art features designed to reduce congestion, step up occupancy, and facilitate easy pay.

A pilot program (90 days in length) may test the waters to determine the impact (negative or positive) on a proposed plan to extend hours at Fisherman's Wharf.

Slated changes:  9 p.m. on week-days; 12 midnight on week-ends.

Pretty soon, folks will be paying toll fees through the nose to travel along city streets!

Google will be right there to map out the routes.

http://www.thetattler.biz

Toll Highways...beam me up, Scottie!

I suppose if there wasn't a toll bridge at the turnpike, Sonny - a character in the "Godfather" - would never have been ambushed and murdered in brutal gangland style.

New Yorkers feel they are being ambushed in another way.

On the horizon?

City-dwellers in the Big Apple can expect to be squeezed for tolls on mid-Manhattan streets during peak traffic hours.

"It's another scheme for them to milk the middle class," said one irate driver.
Another quipped that, "It's for rich people like Bloomberg."

Backers argue that "congestion pricing" will ultimately save money because companies won't have to pay workers to sit in traffic.

After all, there are stunning claims that gridlock currently saps about $13 billion dollars out of the economy each year.

In jolly old England, commuters pay hefty fees daily for the privilege of careening around the downtown core of London's quaint city streets.

Of course, their system is so much more ominous than the one proposed in the U of SA.

Imagine that, a device affixed to the lower carriage of the vehicle actually tracks the drivers as they cruise through the cityscape.

Geez, that sounds a lot like Orwell's 1984, to me!

Out of spite - a defiant few are parking their old caddies and new-fangled hybrids - to hop on a scooter, take a morning jaunt to work, or ride public transport.

People must be getting desperate, eh?

I'm waiting for the days when we can use a particle device to transport our sentient beings through space without any dependence on Detroit or the automakers in Japan.

Not such a far-fetched idea.

In fact, in the December issue of Nature Magazine, a group of researchers at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, reported an account of the first experiment to verify quantum teleportation.

Another team in Rome ( headed by Francesco De Martini) submitted similar evidence for publication in the Physical Review.

Neither group sent a colleague to Katmandu or a car to the moon.

But, what they did prove is still pretty startling.

Anton Zeilinger, De Martini and their colleagues - demonstrated independently of each other - that it is wholly possible to transfer the properties of one quantum particle (such as a photon) to another.

Even if the two photons are at opposite ends of the galaxy.

I just hope my body reconfigures correctly at the other end when they transport me!