Says that car rental companies need to buy the blue discs to give to their customers. I assume they will be transferred from one renter to the next. Here's hoping the rental companies have been informed and will buy the blue discs to include with the rentals.
I hope the rental companies explain how to use the disks too; when we rented our car in St. Bart's we were given one with no explanation as to what to do with it. We happened to be in a bar having a beer when we saw a guy park, and use his. We then went back to our car and set the time.
I've never seen these before. What I kind of wonder about is how they know if you set the time correctly? What's to keep you from going back and re-setting it?
Carol_Hill said: I've never seen these before. What I kind of wonder about is how they know if you set the time correctly? What's to keep you from going back and re-setting it?
Maybe they'll have "meter maids" patrolling the streets. When we parked our car in St. Barts we never set the time, then went back and did it. Don't know how long we should have been there in the first place. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />
The system only works if people are honest with it. If they run out and change the time on the disk every 90 minutes then it doesn't work well.
On St Barth, they use uniformed municipal employees to write the tickets. I managed to get a ticket when I forgot to set the disk.
The blue disks areas in Gustavia are 90 minutes, and I think the ones at the airport are 20 or 30 minutes, with a pay lot across the street. The main parking lot in Gustavia is now a pay lot with a central pay station. I'll figure out how that works the next time that I'm over there.
Who knows. In some lots the officers use a chalk mark on the tire and record what time it was marked. When they come back and the mark is still there they can easily figure out how long the car was there.