Credit Card Parking Meters: Lean, Mean, and Totally Green
This is a guest post by Sarah Harris who has a blog about Wedding Planning Advice. Today, she is going to post about something a little off beat from my usual posting – and I hope you enjoy reading this on a Sunday
If you work in a downtown metropolitan area, or even if you’re just visiting, chances are you’ve found yourself in this unfortunate situation: after circling for an hour, you miraculously pull in behind someone who is leaving and nab an empty spot…only to realize that you have no change to feed the meter. Do you risk running into a nearby store to change out a bill with the meter maids scouring every street, or simply throw up your hands in frustration and head for home? Well, if you live or work in downtown Los Angeles, you are one of the millions of people who will no longer have to face this disgruntling dilemma. The city has just unveiled a plan to install 10,000 new “Card and Coin” parking meters that will accept credit cards as tender. And it’s about time!
Five hundred of these meters were recently installed and are already online, and the rest are slated to be up and running by July 1st, according to L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. They are estimated to increase city revenue by 1-1.5 million dollars per year and the test run meters have already shown a 40% increase in revenue. Plus, they have been proven reliable about 99% of the time due to the fact that they are vandal and tamper proof (unlike their coin-hungry predecessors). And if they do fail, they can send a wireless signal to a technician for immediate service.
Another cost-effective benefit for the city is the purchase agreement. Currently, the meters are on a 3-year lease from a wireless technology company called IPS Group, Inc., with a payment plan that allows for either a flat-rate monthly lease or the amount of revenue the meter makes in a month, whichever is less. So there’s no way the city can lose money. It’s as if the meters were made of gold.
And the icing on the cake is that they are totally green. Each meter runs on its own solar power source, which will help L.A. continue on the path towards becoming the greenest big city in America. What’s really amazing is that no one thought of this before. With more and more merchants moving towards credit and away from cash and checks (less hassle, less risk), parking meters seem like the next logical step, especially considering how many of us have ended up kicking ourselves for throwing the last of our change in the tip jar at Starbucks before remembering we needed it for parking. And even though only 10,000 meters are scheduled for installation, if the revenue pans out as expected, it’s only a matter of time before these sensible parking solutions will be found at a strip-mall near you.
