There could be poetry on your parking dockets within a few months as Dunedin moves to add a novel idea to its pay and display parking machines.
Poetick Parking debuted at this year's Vogel St Party, after University of Otago design students Ben Alder, Connor Harrison, Liam Bigelow and Innes Galloway dreamed it up for a university assessment.
The scheme brings together poetry, parking tickets and connectivity and is believed to be the first of its kind in the world.
Poetry can be sent to the machines via Wi-Fi, before being printed on the back of pay and display tickets.
In time, it is hoped all 11 Cities of Literature around the world, including Dunedin, will be part of the scheme. That could mean a poem written and submitted by a Dunedin resident could pop out of a ticket machine in Edinburgh, Reykjavik or Prague a minute later.
Mr Alder said the aim was to ‘‘transform the paid parking experience from a negative to a positive''.‘‘So, on the way back to the car, [people] can read a poem sent in from anywhere in the world.''But the first city to conquer was Dunedin and the students were on their way to doing that. Since the successful demonstration of the machines at the Vogel St Party, the students had received interest from various quarters.
There had been discussions with the council about getting ‘‘a couple'' of the machines installed in the proposed Jetty St pedestrian mall, while plans were also afoot to have a machine installed inside Toitu Otago Settlers Museum.
But the real coup was the interest being shown by the Dunedin City Council, he said.
DCC planning and regulatory committee chairman Cr David Benson-Pope said investigations were under way to see whether the scheme could be included in all the city's operational pay and display machines.
The scheme was ‘‘not just a gimmick'' and had resulted in ‘‘really positive feedback'' after its Vogel St Party launch, he said.
Although it was early days, city-wide ticket machines could be printing the poetry-adorned dockets early next year "if all goes to plan", he said.
"It's something that is very much on our agenda. I don't think it will cost very much at all. We don't see that there are any operational difficulties.
"I don't see any downside. People just really like the idea, it really caught the imagination."
Mr Alder said the fact such discussions were occurring was very encouraging.
"I'm pretty happy. It's pretty awesome to have people take notice of the idea and have some support behind it. It's good that all the efforts paid off."
