Downtowners who have delighted in the recent disappearance of parking meters on certain streets may want to take a second look, for they have not just vanished. Instead, the city replaced them with sleeker, more efficent boxes “” each of which replaces 10 old-fashioned coin-operated meters.
The new meters, known officially as Pay & Display meters, can take credit cards, parking debit cards or coins, which is the number one piece of positive feedback the city has received, according to Mona Favorite-Hill, senior public information officer in the City of San Diego’s General Services. The need not to carry change makes a real difference to drivers everywhere, whether they are downtown every day or only once in a while.
The 50 new meters are part of a pilot program of the City of San Diego to provide more convenient parking while producing information on parking for the city. Each box is solar-powered and reports directly to city staff things like how many cars have parked on a given day, how much money is in the meter, and notify staff if the meter is malfunctioning. All of these features help to save on maintenance and labor costs.
If the program is successful, the city will expand the program to more blocks throughout downtown. Right now, Pay & Display meters can be found on blocks in the Marina, Gaslamp, Core/ Columbia, East Village and ballpark areas.
However, if it isn’t successful, the first 50 will stay but there will be no need to expand if usage doesn’t increase, since the old meters can meet the need. However, the fact that old meters are getting harder to repair helped to neccesitate the pilot program.
There are only two main concerns with the new meters. First, the height of the interface raises some Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) concerns, but the fact that handicapped drivers never need to pay for parking in San Diego negates any of these problems. Secondly, others are complaining that meters have popped up on blocks where there were previously none.
“But now with the increase in people living downtown, we need more turnover,” Favorite-Hill explained.