Technology is taking much of the fun out of finding a place to park the car. Now, in cities from New York to Seattle. the door is open to a host of wireless technologies seeking to improve the parking meter even further. Chicago and Sacramento, California, among others, are equipping enforcement vehicles with infrared cameras capable of scanning license plates even at 30 miles an hour. Using a global positioning system. the cameras can tell which individual cars have parked too long in a two-hour parking zone. At a cost of $75,000 a camera, the system is an expensive upgrade of the old method of chalking tires and then coming back two hours later to see if the car has moved.

Parking czars in municipalities across the country are starting to realize parking meters’ original goals: generating revenue and creating a continuous turnover of parking spaces on city streets. Clearly, their main questions are “Would there be enough new revenues from installing the expensive parking monitoring devices?” and “How many devices should be installed to maximize the revenue streams?" From the device manufacturer’s point of view, the question is “Would there be enough demand for their products to justify the investment required in new facilities and marketing?” If the manufacturer decides to go ahead and market the products, but the actual demand is far less than its forecast or the adoption of the technology is too slow, what would be the potential financial risk?