The strange punishment imposed in this country for parking badly
Chinese authorities considered a financial fine to be an insufficient sanction and have devised a peculiar method: attaching a suction cup on cars
In many countries, parking badly is punishable by a financial fine. In some parts of China, it is not. There, they have opted for a system that will expose all drivers who do not respect the rules when parking a vehicle.
Considering the size of China, it is not clear that this measure is being applied throughout the country, as there are different traffic regulations depending on the region. However, some regions have started to crack down on drivers who do not respect parking regulations. They are doing so by placing large suction cups, similar to a clamp, on their cars. These devices do not stop the vehicle from moving; instead, their purpose is to single out drives who park incorrectly… and to shame them.
The tactic has been discovered through the Chinese version of TikTok. A video uploaded on the platform shows agents placing the suction cup on a badly parked vehicle: the device is attached to the driver’s door and has a cable that wraps around the rearview mirror.
Inside the device is a GPS and a timer, which is used to keep track of how many days the system has been active: this way, the amount of the financial fine is calculated. According to Reddit users, the GPS is used to track the offender if he does not pay the fine. The suction cup can only be removed when the corresponding payment is made.
This system could be more effective than a simple parking ticket because of the social embarrassment of having to drive around with a suction cup stuck on the car that makes you look bad in front of other citizens.
A similar strategy was used on pedestrians
This is not the first time that China has opted for such a system. A few years ago, in the streets of some cities, they tested a facial recognition system with which they fined anyone who broke the rules. Through a network of cameras, they captured the faces of pedestrians who had committed an infraction and displayed their faces on large screens installed at intersections. The goal was the same: to embarrass them.
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