Arlington pilots new meters

Parking

Arlington pilots new meters

by Michael Perkins • September 16, 2009 12:28 pm

In some Arlington locations, drivers are now able to pay for parking by credit card, right at the curb. Unlike the multi-space pay and display meters showing up around the region, these parking meters are conveniently located right at each parking space, and do not require the driver to place a receipt on their dashboard.

Photo by niallkennedy.

The county is trying the new meters out for a 3 or 4-month pilot program.

The new meters are a drop-in replacement for the county's existing parking meters. A video (which I now can't find again) shows how they can be replaced in less than 30 seconds. The old meter is unlocked and the top and guts are removed, the new guts and a new top are installed. The meters use existing coin boxes and poles. According to Arlington County, the new meters are about $500 each. They are solar powered, accept credit cards, and do not need to have supplies like receipt paper periodically replaced. The meters are similar or identical to the ones used in the new SFPark pilot program in San Francisco.

The brochure states that the meters can be administered remotely, report errors or malfunctions by text message, and can even accept cell phone or contactless credit card payment.

Arlington is currently undergoing a series of public review and board approval cycles for their draft Master Transportation Plan. In the Parking and Curbspace Management element (PDF) of the draft plan, Arlington is contemplating a change to Performance Parking as one of its curbspace management tools. The draft element needs to be approved by the County Board (scheduled for November 14, 2009) before it will be official guidance for staff to draft revisions to county ordinances.

Assuming the Parking element is approved with something resembling Performance Parking, Arlington's new meters would permit adjustment of meter rates at different times of day, and report data that allows staff to measure the relative popularity of different meters which would allow them to adjust rates based on demand.

23 comments

Tags: Arlington, parking, performance parking, technology

DDOT piloting credit card meters (Jan 20, 2010)
Arlington plans performance parking pilot, other progressive parking policies (Sep 30, 2009)
Arlington meters should run after dark (Nov 2, 2010)
Goodbye evening parking time limits, hello technology pilots (Jun 28, 2010)
Multispace meters make performance parking easier (May 21, 2009)

Michael Perkins blogs here and at Infosnack about Metro operations and fares, performance parking, and any other government and economics information he finds on the Web. He lives with his wife and two children in Arlington, Virginia.

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Are any local government considering paying by text message? This is becoming more and more fashionable in Europe. You park, and text "Parking on" to some text number. When you leave, you text "Parking off" and the confirming text message costs you your parking fee, calculated down to the minute.

Largest advantage: no more cash in the meters.

by Jasper on Sep 16, 2009 12:36 pm

I am (pay box) green with envy. Chicago could learn a thing or infinitely many from Arlington.

by Lynn Stevens on Sep 16, 2009 12:40 pm

I think that, in crowded areas, multi-space meters are far better, because you don't have to mark parking-space lengths. Right now, where marked, parallel parking-spaces have to be designed to be large enough to fit the longest cars. Without markings, cars can fit in according to their length, accommodating many more vehicles.

by Joey on Sep 16, 2009 12:41 pm

I can lock my bicycle to those? Cool!

by darren on Sep 16, 2009 1:07 pm

Joey -- in theory that's true, but all too many times in practice I see large gaps between cars that aren't large enough for anything other than perhaps a Mini. Purely a result of who pulls in/out when, not the two-space-grabbing Porsche drivers.

by ah on Sep 16, 2009 1:11 pm

in Petoskey MI they have traditional meters a call in option. there are signs attached to the meters telling you how to operate the phone system. it charges your credit or debit card at a slightly lower rate than the meter and tells the meter readers that your space is paid for. you call to end it, so you only pay for what you use. seems easier and cheaper than new meter/guts. Though, Petoskey is much smaller and likely easier to manage than Arlington.

by dano on Sep 16, 2009 1:20 pm

Damn, don't they switch types of meters like every three months?

by TeeHee on Sep 16, 2009 3:19 pm

Talked with the parking operations manager for Arlington. Meters typically last about 7 years before they wear out and have to be replaced, give or take. The old meters have two 9V batteries that have to be replaced about every 6 months.

The new ones with solar panels extend battery life to about 18 months, and have to be visited less frequently because they're more reliable and collect money by credit card so the coin boxes don't fill up as fast.

by Michael Perkins on Sep 16, 2009 3:27 pm

They have these in some of the spots at National Harbor. Which is good because its a quarter for 15 minutes and they run 24 hours. They're fairly recent as well because I was caught off gaurd by them they weren't there a few months ago.

by Canaan on Sep 16, 2009 3:30 pm

So there's no receipt for the charge to your credit card?

Also: Has there ever been a discussion about using EZ Pass or SmarTrip for parking? I know that Florida's SunPass can be used for parking in some places (the Orlando airport).

by Gavin Baker on Sep 16, 2009 3:38 pm

What a smart idea in Petosky Michigan! And, Petosky is beautiful. Bklyn caucus

by Bianchi on Sep 16, 2009 3:40 pm

What about people who don't use credit cards?

by Tim on Sep 16, 2009 3:45 pm

No receipts. Some of the vendor documents state that the meters can be configured for ISO/IEC 14443 standard smartcards, which are the contactless payment cards available on the market, and are compatible with WMATA's new smartrip readers being installed in stations right now, and are already installed in buses.

Since the Smartrip card is a proprietary CUBIC GOCARD interface, the meters would not be compatible with current Smartrip cards. However, if WMATA were to decide to create Smartrip V2.0 (Smartertrip? Or perhaps as inspired by this blog, SmarSmarTrip?) based on 14443 then it could be used to access parking meters as well as do all sorts of standardized things.

by Michael Perkins on Sep 16, 2009 3:47 pm

@tim: Coins. I think these take quarters and dollars.

by Michael Perkins on Sep 16, 2009 3:49 pm

I just hope they keep the "ALL MAY PARK, ALL MUST PAY" stickers :)

by Omari on Sep 16, 2009 4:21 pm

I always read those stickers as sort of an apocalyptic statement: All have sinned, all must pay, etc.

by Gavin Baker on Sep 16, 2009 4:28 pm

I just hope whatever they select, it lasts awhile.

I have participated in just about every attempt Arlington has made over the past decade+ to simplify of automate parking payment:
-parkulators
- various versions of meters operated by prepaid cards, unfortunately for awhile they had different types of meters that took different cards. It was a pain when you wanted to park at a meter, had no change, but the meter you parked at didn't take the card you had.

personally I like the multi-space option best

by spookiness on Sep 16, 2009 7:58 pm

I just keep a bunch of dollar coins in my car. I have a bank within a block of my work that doesn't mind giving me dollar coins periodically for no charge.

by Michael Perkins on Sep 16, 2009 10:00 pm

@Bianchi, I couldn't agree more, too bad no one can get a job in Michigan.

by dano on Sep 17, 2009 8:24 am

Isn't Arlington having budget issues? Why do they keep changing the meters? I notice the meter maids drive around in BIG 4x4 trucks...how is that environmentally friendly?

by John on Sep 17, 2009 9:41 am

When the old meters wear out after 7 years, they have to replace them with something.
If you're going to replace them, why not replace them with something modern that offers additional convenience to the parker as well as management, while lowering operating costs?
And if you're going to be replacing a lot of them with something new, why not do a pilot study to see if the proposed meters actually work like the manufacturer says they do?
If you don't replace or maintain meters periodically, you get what the District has, where a significant fraction of the meters don't work and don't collect revenue.

by Michael Perkins on Sep 17, 2009 9:57 am

John: Arlington isn't changing out all the meters frequently. The multiple meters is probably because they keep changing what they install as the latest model. They don't tear out every meter for replacement just because a new model comes out, but they will use a new meter type to replace that year's allotment of replacements.

by Michael Perkins on Sep 17, 2009 9:59 am

I don't understand why meters should take money as @tim asks. It drives up costs significantly. Of course if you can afford a car you would qualify for a credit card.

by Kevin Diffily on Mar 27, 2012 12:26 pm