Digital Parking Meters Arrive in Downtown Jacksonville

[thelakelander]

Urban Jacksonville has announced that smart meters are on their way to downtown.

Finally!   We pushed for a revised parking meter ordinance and the installation of smart meters, with the help of Suzanne Jenkins in 2006.  The initial push made it to council's finance committee where a $5 million bill to fund them failed, however the seed was officially planted in city hall.  Now its 2009 and the plant has finally started to grow.

I’m getting the full scoop on these from COJ, but for now here are my observations:

Meters sit on top of existing bases, seems like an easy install
Credit and debit card
Solar powered
You can increment and decrement the amount of time you purchase
No manufacturer information visible
There were only 6 or so meters in front of The Landing
Appears to be a pilot program

check out the video at Urban Jacksonville: http://www.urbanjacksonville.info/2009/06/20/digital-parking-meters-arrive-in-downtown-jacksonville/


Here is a little background information on the parking meter push from an early 2007 Times-Union article.

Taking it to the street



Grassroots groups of downtown merchants and residents are increasingly attracting the attention of public officials. But are these groups winning battles and improving urban conditions, or just venting frustrations?

Raising a voice

That frustration begot Metro Jacksonville, a vocal grassroots group that boasts about a dozen active members who post hefty (and often opinionated) articles on their Web site, www.metrojacksonville.com, calling for a variety of changes for downtown Jacksonville.

Every week, a handful of Metro Jacksonville members meet at Boomtown to discuss what editorials will be posted on the Web site for the week - and to relax with a beer or two.

A recent Web post decried the derelict condition of the abandoned downtown Park View Inn, including a photo tour. A February 2006 post dissected the city's "draconian" parking policy, calling for the city to abolish "nitpicky" parking rules and to extend parking meter limits to three hours, presumably to allow for increased shopper meandering. The post was noticed by Councilwoman Suzanne Jenkins.

"The parking situation was terrible," said Jenkins, who worked with Metro Jacksonville to push the parking issues to the attention of Ron Barton, executive director of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and a parking-focused task force.

Before, potential shoppers could be ticketed for parking too far away from the curb or feeding the meter to extend their shopping and lunch trips past the meter's expiration, Jenkins said. "People were walking away with $45 tickets, and they never wanted to come back," she said.

Metro Jacksonville's online editorial calling for the city to revise the parking policy, got a lot of attention in governmental channels. The plan outlined in the online post recommended shoppers be able to park at a metered space for up to three hours and to eliminate penalties for parking too close or far away from either the curb or the meter. The plan also called for the relaxation of the parking restriction that forced drivers to move their car after the meter expired at least four blocks away. Metro Jacksonville's plan also called for "smart meters," which would allow shoppers to use credit cards instead of loose change to pay for parking.

After several meetings with Barton and Jenkins, the relaxed parking plan was approved in December, and the smart meters are expected to debut downtown within a year.

"The parking was a huge victory," Jenkins said. "I never could have gotten that accomplished without them."

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/021907/bus_7953815.shtml

[JaxByDefault]

It's an improvement. I'll take getting a full 30 minutes for each quarter and the ability to use credit cards as a sign of progress.

Now if the meters also too tranist cards; meters were removed on the lower traffic blocks to encourage business development; and the city made the library parking deck free on wekends, holidays, events, and after 6pm, that would be even better.

[BridgeTroll]

Congratulations!

[Steve]

Finally - this was something we tried with Jenkins, with no success.  Apparently, someone was actually listening.

Now we can donate the existing ones (assuming they roll them out downtown wide) to a museum or something.

[JaxByDefault]

But what will they do with all of the pretty, pretty stickers they just purchased for the old meters? 

[hiddentrack]

Now we can donate the existing ones (assuming they roll them out downtown wide) to a museum or something.

...or re-use them in a way that could help another one of downtown's "problems". I have a friend who used to live in Denver who told me about this program:

The city of Denver has recycled old parking meters to help in the fight against homelessness.

The old parking meters have been placed at various locations in downtown, including Skyline Park.

The idea is to encourage people to put the money into the parking meters instead of giving to panhandlers. Money raised from the meters will go to organizations fighting homelessness.

From http://cbs4denver.com/local/Colorado.news.Denver.2.557029.html

[BridgeTroll]

I saw one in Atlanta recently.

[Cliffs_Daughter]

Heck, I'd like one converted into a bank for my son's room! Since it's in a Cars theme and all, I could work it in very well.

Although I like the charity idea too.

[heights unknown]

Other cities have had those for eons, and Jax is just now getting them?  Has the price of parking continued to go up downtown?

Heights Unknown

[tufsu1]

nope...still 30 minutes for $0.25

[mtraininjax]

City has no money, but they can afford new parking meters? More reasons to distrust the leaders of Jax.

[Deuce]

It's a start. It will be great to see these all over downtown one day. Great idea above for the reuse of meters.

[BridgeTroll]

In Atlanta they were painted yellow.  They were located off the street near homeless congregation areas with a sign asking that rather give the vagrant a dollar you put a dollar in the machine on their behalf.

[Traveller]

Speaking of parking enforcement, how long does a car have to remain illegally parked before it is towed?  There is a red Jaguar parked on Forsyth Street near Hogan that has been booted for more than 2 weeks now.  It renders that lane completely useless during rush hour.

[jbroadglide]

Traveller, call 630-CITY and report it.