New meters take credit cards
Residents Tom and Kate Larkin leave their coins in their wallets and swipe their credit card at a parking kiosk before heading into Shellback Tavern. Photo
by Andrea Ruse
Parking around town may no longer require carrying a stash of extra coins in the car or popping into a local restaurant to make change for a dollar.
Last Wednesday the city launched a nine-month trial of parking meters that accept credit and debit cards and a pay-by-cell-phone feature.
“How many times are you at the meter with only five cents in your pocket and end up basically gambling with getting a parking ticket?” city revenue manager Steve Charelian said. “With these meters, you swipe your credit card and walk away.”
Two competing types of new technology meters were installed last Wednesday in the upper and lower pier parking lots and will be assessed through September.
Fifty-five single-space meters were installed in the northern lots. All forms of payment are made directly on the meter head, similar to traditional meters.
In the multi-space meter approach, four kiosks were installed in the southern lots and each of the 63 parking spaces was assigned a number. Motorists type in their space numbers and pay at the kiosk. Debit and credit cards must first be registered before using this payment option at the kiosk.
“We will look at the layout and make our assessment later of which one would work better where,” Charelian said. “There will probably be places for both.”
Motorists can request to be notified via text message shortly before a meter expires when using either type of meter. Both still take coins and charge $1.50 per hour with a maximum five hour time limit. At a later point in the trial, the meters may accept reloadable cash cards or cash keys that have been in use throughout the city since 2003.
“It’s great,” resident Kate Larkin said, after she and her husband, Tom, used the multi-space system for the first time. “This way, you don’t have to carry a bunch of change with you.”
“Once you figure it out, it’s easy,” Tom Larkin said. He also noted that while the kiosk accepted credit card and coin payments, he was unable to insert dollars.
The city expects to save time and money by moving away from strictly coin-operated machines. Since many features are geared towards enhanced enforcement, an increase in parking citations may also be expected.
Hand-held devices work electronically with multi-space kiosks and immediately indicate which meters have expired to parking enforcement officers. The system “greatly increases speed and accuracy in issuing citations,” according to the vendor’s website.
Although both types of meters have the ability to “zero out” remaining time on a meter after a car leaves a parking space, the city has not implemented this feature. Charelian said that it will probably be tested later during the trial.
“One of the small perks in life is when you pull up to a spot and there’s 20 minutes left on the meter,” observed resident Sam Vance after he swiped his credit card at a pier kiosk.
Other features allow for setting special event rates and displaying messages, such as reminding drivers to curb their wheels.
Few cities are currently using new meter technologies, according to Charelian.
“It’s mind-blowing even after I’ve been working in this industry for over a decade,” he said. “We came a long way with the cash key and to now go to credit cards is really amazing.”
The total cost of the trial is $12,000 for software and management systems. If the city chooses to implement the meters after the trial, multi-space meters will cost approximately $7,500 per kiosk and single-space meters will cost roughly $500 each, not including associated software costs. Staff will make recommendations to the City Council in September after they analyze the data.
“We need to make sure these machines work in wind, rain, sun, and whatever else gets thrown at them,” Charelian said.
An online survey is available at www.citymb.info/parking for motorists to provide feedback to the city, which Charelian said thus far, has all been positive. ER