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After a massive wave of public outcry regarding the ongoing 50% rate hike to parking meters throughout the urban neighborhoods of Columbus, the city is trying to make amends. 720 new smart meter heads will start to be rolled out in May 2010, which will accept credit cards in addition to coins.
A civic working group considing of community, business, and civic leaders will oversee the implementation locations of these new credit card meters, and will be tasked with monitoring the impact of the meter rate increases.
The meter rate increases, which took effect on November 30th, have been an administrative decision by the Public Service Department, so no vote was required by City Council. Tonight, City Council is expected to vote on the creation of a holding account that will allocate $1.4 million in parking meter revenue for reserve bonds to help finance the new Convention Center Hotel.
Where would you like to see these new credit-card meters initially implemented?
Without any sort of studies in front of me, I’d imagine that replacing the meters in the most expensive zones (with quickest turnover) first, followed by the most highly utilized meters (Short North?) next, would probably make the most sense for credit card users.
Gay Street seems like first logical place to implement the meters, followed by High Street in the Short North.
I used one of these when they were on Gay for the testing and I must say I liked them user friendly . Very convenient to not have to have change on you at all times.
I’m guessing S. 4th Street isn’t on the short list. Your meter will cost more than your lunch at Dirty Frank’s Hot Dogs starting soon, in quarters!
I think the Department needs to halt installing any meters and increasing any rates until the work group has met and made recommendations to the Department. The City deserves an open, public and transparent process. The taxpayers deserve meters to be bid out and they deserve the meters the work group recommends.
There is a lot of convience to these meters, which is nice.
Does the city get a break on visa/mastercard transaction fees?
With the amount of credit card fraud rampant in the nation right now, I highly doubt VISA is offering anyone any breaks.
I would like to see our city work with the local business leaders to determine the most impactful and also most needed areas for the smart meters. Making it convenient for people to be downtown and to patronize those businesses should be the top priority in determining where these meters go. I’m glad that we are getting them sooner rather than later, since the average person is not carrying $5-10 in quarters!
mkurth Says: I would like to see our city work with the local business leaders to determine the most impactful and also most needed areas for the smart meters.
From my understanding, several business owners and business leaders are being reached out to for a seat on the meter oversight committee, who will determine the placement of these new smart meters.
lizless Says: I think the Department needs to halt installing any meters and increasing any rates until the work group has met and made recommendations to the Department. The City deserves an open, public and transparent process. The taxpayers deserve meters to be bid out and they deserve the meters the work group recommends.
Agreed!
Kudos to the city for forming a working group. This new approach is more reasonable (although far from perfect) than the previous iteration of the proposal.
“Where would you like to see these new credit-card meters initially implemented?”
Mayor Coleman’s <<Mod Delete>>
Let’s see. Meters were inconvenient before. Now they’ll be slightly less inconvenient but much more expensive. I wonder how this will encourage people to come downtown.
@ cc
I’m curious as well how they handle the transaction fees. A lot of vending machines across OSU campus now take credit cards. I highly doubt they are paying the same transactions rates as a normal store. I would think given the relatively low $$ that the meters generate per use they would have some sort of similar transaction price point as the vending machines I mentioned.
Glad to see that the city is taking some initiative at addressing this issue. The working group and community input should have been part of the process long ago. I would agree that Gay Street and High Street in the Short North have to be the front runners. Are the college campuses included in this?
In the mean time, there should be at least one location near Broad & High where you can buy those meter cards. They shouldn’t phase those out until a much later date. Still, this move really isn’t addressing the 50% increase and the fact that city leaders laughably believe that the convention center hotel is the silver bullet for revitalization. They’re willing to put aside 1.4 million to help pay for a hotel, but what about coughing up a similar amount for incentives to fill all those empty storefronts on High?
As for implementing these meters based on where most revenue is generated, I do wonder what the amount was on S 4th (all meters Dowtnown) before and after Dirty Frank’s opened.
We called Lexington, Dayton, Cincinnati and Cleveland today to compare meter rates. This is the most data that has been conducted to my knowledge to date.
Here’s what we found:
Cincinnati: All 2-hour meters are either 25¢ for 15 minutes or 25¢ for an hour, giving a range of 25¢ to $1.00 per hour. We also found that Cincinnati has a “first 10-minutes are free†program. Patrons simply push the button on the face of the meter when they arrive for a free start to their visit.
Dayton: We spoke with Tom Woesty (937-333-4075) in traffic engineering. In January, Dayton raised its parking rates unilaterally to an all time high of 60¢ an hour. Tom shared that since the change, their re-feed revenue (customers adding time to a meter) has dropped substantially. People are not staying as long… even at only 60¢ an hour.
Cleveland: we spoke with Lee Stevens, Commissioner of Parking Facilities (216.664.2711). We found, quote: “all 2-hour meters are 75¢ per hour except for those attached to an institution (such as a school or hospital), in which case they are 50¢ per hour).â€Â
Lexington: We found that all downtown meters have recently been greatly increased to $1.00 per hour. The price was considered an astronomical jump from their previous level of 25¢ per hour.
Now here’s what we’re being told in Columbus:
The bulk of 2-hour meters in our downtown core (zones 1, 2 and 3, which serve the same types of areas as those referenced in neighboring cities) will be priced at $1.50 – $2.25 per hour. I am not pulling out the extreme prices of specialty meters that will go up to $3.00 an hour. I am focusing on meters that service visitors who want to shop or dine. Visitors to Gay Street businesses. Visitors to Long Street businesses. Our least expensive downtown rate for a 2-hour meter will be 50% higher than our neighbor’s most expensive downtown rate for a 2-hour meter!
We have begged for a quality analysis to substantiate this amazing increase. The mayor’s office has indicated that they did not have the time or the resources to conduct a thorough analysis of the situation.
I think the credit card enabled meters will alleviate most of my issues. I’d still like to see meter rates based on market demand rather than an arbitrary 50% increase. If the demand is there, people will pay the higher rates, and I have no problem with higher rates in those cases. But at least some research has to be done to justify that.
Just in, ParkSmart, the parking authority for Downtown Toledo confirmed that rates in Toledo are $1/hour. Columbus has the highest rates in the region and possibly the midwest.
I love how they “Don’t have the resources” … it took liz one day to get every major city in Ohio’s prices and compared them to ours.
Actually, John Angelo made many of the phone calls to the other City officials. He’s awesome.