park-and-pay kiosks replacing old downtown meters
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Now we know where all that new Downtown parking meter revenue is going.
Since late November 2007, the Department of Transportation has been working to replace outdated single-space meters around Los Angeles with new high-tech Park & Pay Stations, a move city officials hope will improve the convenience, accountability and reliability of its parking meter system
The goal is to upgrade 6,000 (2,000 in lots and 4,000 on-street) of the city’s approximately 40,000 existing metered spaces.
Over the weekend, the first of 140 on-street kiosks planned throughout the Financial District and South Park appeared — still hooded and not yet functional — on the blocks surrounding 8th and Hope. The computerized stands are replacing 700 old meters and should all be in place by the end of October.
A second wave of deployments will be online by December 31.
Drivers who never have change on hand may appreciate that the Park & Pay stations are equipped to accept credit cards and payments via cell phone. To make life even easier, you can opt to receive a text message reminder ten minutes before your time expires!
For those of you preferring to forgo parking altogether, this is good news for you as well.
Since each new station manages several parking spaces on a block, the streetscape will be enhanced by eliminating clutter along the sidewalk, leaving more room for walking and restaurant patio seating.
According to a spokesman for LADOT, the program has been well received so far, and the program could be expanded in the future.
Have an opinion on the new installations? Let us know in the comments!
-Park & Pay Stations Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)
-How the Park & Pay Stations Work (PDF)
-Downtown Parking Meter Rates Set to Double (blogdowntown)
16 comments
but less parking meters to lock up your bike..
It’s technically illegal to lock your bike to a parking meter. =] Not that the law is enforced.
Great, more doo-dads to confuse Grandpa.
And by that I mean a generic old person, not any Grandpa in particular. Is that ageist? I think there’s more than a nugget of truth there. Be on the lookout for confused seniors, and stop to give them a hand with the new fangled machines.
^At least they still have the original coin drop slots.
I used one in Venice last week and I couldn’t believe that it called me on my cell phone to tell me the meter was up - awesome!
most likely these things don’t fail as often as our trusty ole parking meters. there goes the chance for free parking
Berkeley, CA has had these for quite some time and are a much better way to go IMHO.
Portland, OR has them too. And yes, they are way better than the old meters.
On 5th Street, just east of Hill, there are new, single meters which also take credit cards. Not a kiosk, but actual single-space meters. I guess they are trying several things at once.
These bad boys are being installed all over my neighborhood the last few days.
I think it’s a great idea for a few reasons:
- No more carrying hand-fulls of quarters
- As great as free parking is at failed meters, these units should be more reliable and cut down on the bad ticket I was written a couple months ago when the meter was failed, then reset
I love the use of technology and can only hope the roll out of these units is widespread in the downtown core ASAP.
I was thrilled at first, but then I followed the link to sign up for paying by cellphone, and it noted that a service fee would be charged in addition to what you’re paying the meter to park. I don’t know what the fee is, but I imagine it’s going to be a ripoff.
Also, the payments are made in $1 increments, so even if you only need an extra 10 minutes, you’ll still be paying more.
Seattle has them as well - imo they are much better than the stand alone quarter gets jammed then it fails and u get a ticket anyway meters. The good thing about them is it will only let you pay during the posted hours. I’ve seen people who didn’t know any better put pockets full of change into meters on Sunday or after 6… these you can’t. Another good thing, as long as you’re in the same type of zone, you can re-use your sticker at another parking spot without having to re-pay - granted you still have time leftover.
Paul:
It’s $0.20 per transaction. To some, two dimes is worth the reminder to save them a $45 parking ticket.
Recently used one in Venice.
Manual entry of coins is the same as manual meters, with the exception that a meter number must be entered before paying for time. After entering the meter number it returns meter status - time remaining or expired, which means its available. Electronic transactions have fees, of course.
The UI is pretty good, or so it seems to an old guy like me that’s been programming for 41 years this month.
They’ve had that set up at a parking lot in Lincoln Heights (North Broadway behind the 99 cents only store) for over a month. Works quite well.
These are used all the time in France—no fancy bells and whistles (reminders, cell phones) but definitely much easier than the individual meters…and in the case of large lots, it makes for more open space for things like farmers markets, etc. on weekends.
I wonder however if it won’t take more time for the meter persons to check the dash of each car, rather than drive by and look at the meter as they drive…
These machines are ticketless so enforcement officers don’t have to look inside each vehicle for an expired or missing ticket.
Officers can access bay status via the meter interface.