Austin May Eliminate Downtown Meters! (there's a catch)
March 05, 2009 21:01 Filed in: News
Good news! The City of Austin is considering eliminating 3,800 single space parking meters!
The only downside is that they plan to replace the 3,800 meters with 750 whole block "pay station kiosks" that will make you walk down the block to figure out how to use a complex machine to print a ticket to place on the inside of your car after you walk back down the block.
Why? Apparently, each of the existing meters fails every 90 days on average -- and replacing them with a large complex machine with ink, paper, and an internet connection should eliminate this problem. Coincidentally, it would also allow the city to take credit cards and charge higher prices for downtown parking over time.
All this for just $8.4 million!
Here is a summary from the Austin Business Journal:
The city of Austin may choose to update its approach to on-street parking with a “pay and display” system of kiosks.
The city council on Thursday will take up a proposal for a nearly $8.4 million, three-year contract with Moorestown, N.J.-based Parkeon to provide the hardware and software associated with up to 750 pay station kiosks in and around downtown.
According to backup materials submitted to the council, the city currently has 3,800 single-space parking meters. Those meters are 13 years old now, and city staff say the replacement parts for them will soon be unavailable. The meters’ failure rate is also on the rise, with 16,000 failures expected this year.
Each solar-powered kiosk would cover an entire block face and allow users to pay via credit and debit cards, in addition to coins. The kiosk would issue a printed receipt that the user would then put on his dashboard.
City staff would have the ability to monitor the kiosks remotely via the Internet and get notifications for problems such as low batteries or full coin boxes.
The only downside is that they plan to replace the 3,800 meters with 750 whole block "pay station kiosks" that will make you walk down the block to figure out how to use a complex machine to print a ticket to place on the inside of your car after you walk back down the block.
Why? Apparently, each of the existing meters fails every 90 days on average -- and replacing them with a large complex machine with ink, paper, and an internet connection should eliminate this problem. Coincidentally, it would also allow the city to take credit cards and charge higher prices for downtown parking over time.
All this for just $8.4 million!
Here is a summary from the Austin Business Journal:
The city of Austin may choose to update its approach to on-street parking with a “pay and display” system of kiosks.
The city council on Thursday will take up a proposal for a nearly $8.4 million, three-year contract with Moorestown, N.J.-based Parkeon to provide the hardware and software associated with up to 750 pay station kiosks in and around downtown.
According to backup materials submitted to the council, the city currently has 3,800 single-space parking meters. Those meters are 13 years old now, and city staff say the replacement parts for them will soon be unavailable. The meters’ failure rate is also on the rise, with 16,000 failures expected this year.
Each solar-powered kiosk would cover an entire block face and allow users to pay via credit and debit cards, in addition to coins. The kiosk would issue a printed receipt that the user would then put on his dashboard.
City staff would have the ability to monitor the kiosks remotely via the Internet and get notifications for problems such as low batteries or full coin boxes.