I’ve been doing fairly well with my cashless habits around Charlottetown as most places have some kind of creaky card terminal allowing me to pay via my bank card, not sure they support Unionpay which they should considering the amount of Chinese immigrants I see. Haven’t seen much in the way of mobile payments but it doesn’t seem to be as much a cultural fit here as it was in China.

One part of downtown that hasn’t yet joined the late 20th century are the parking meters. Yesterday out of coins, I quickly hiked up the street to my bank to stand in line for 10 minutes to get a handful of toonies before the dreaded “meter person” came and gave another ticket. I haven’t yet clued in that there are parking garages nearby.

I had received a ticket the day before because I thought 120 meant 120 minutes, but as I set my stop watch today I realized it actually means 1 hr and 20 minutes, hence my disbelief when I received a ticket yesterday AM.

I prefer the Taiwan system where someone drives around giving you a parking bill which you then later pay at a local convenience store.

The parking meters in Charlottetown are due for some kind of update. Perhaps the city could consider implementing the Smart Parking Eco-System that was presented to Parliament back in 2016.