I am not proud of
the fact that I used to and still sometimes park at unauthorized spots. I fancy
the chances that “it will only take a minute” and “they cannot
possibly come so quickly” But usually the cases are the line is longer than expected in the coffee shop. And
I take the walk of shame back only to find out a clamp on my wheel. And now a barnacle?
Some research tells
me there are already municipalities deploying the Barnacle. At the weight of 20
pounds and stretching 3 feet wide and 22 inches tall, this yellow plastic
unfolds and suck the hell to your windshield to block driver’s vision. Oh yeah,
it stays, with roughly 750 pounds of suction that is hardly possible to
overcome by human effort. The built-in pump draws air from the suction cup and
creates a vacuum in between. Nice try using the uncovered vision or sticking your head out of car window to navigate.
An alarm will be automatically triggered if a movement is detected by the
integrated GPS.
The only comfort
comes from the fact that you don’t need to wait one or two hours for the
parking enforcement to come release your car (or worse if you have to go pick
up your car at some towing stations 10 miles away). Just pay for the ticket on
your phone and get a release code to yank it off. Return this damn thing within
24 hours and move on with your life.
Alright, time for
some objectivity. The Barnacle is vastly more convenient for both parking
enforcement and violators in terms of time and resources. It offers
efficiencies for parking enforcement, deployment and retrieval and makes the
whole process more eco-friendly than traditional towing and wheel clamping.
Less carbon emission, less maintenances and less storage space needed.
According to the DailyMail, the Barnacle is priced at $499 per unit and bulk orders of more than
10 units gets $20 discount per unit.