From Director Kelsey's office:
http://www.columbusunderground.com/more-credit-card-parking-meters-being-installed
City of Columbus Begins Installation of Second Round of New
Smart Parking Meters Today
The Columbus Department of Public Service will begin to install 922 new smart parking meters today in the second round of smart meter installations since January. The new meters take credit and debit cards in addition to coins, and are powered by batteries that are solar-rechargeable, weather permitting. The new meters will be installed in the following areas:
Downtown Business District
The Ohio State University area
East Rich Street at Columbus Commons
South 2nd Street and East Main Street at Bicentennial Park
The Short North
The new meters will be installed by mid-August, bringing to 1,910 the total of new smart meters in Columbus. In January, 987 smart meters were installed on Gay Street between Front and North 4th Streets, the Short North, the Arena and Brewery Districts, the North Market area and Grandview Avenue. The department plans to install the new smart meters annually until all of the City’s more than 4,000 parking meters have been replaced with smart meters.
The new smart meters are replacing the City’s aging parking meter fleet that has been in service since 1999. The frequency of repairs to the current meter fleet has been increasing in recent years as the average effective lifetime of a parking meter is no more than 10 years.
Current meter locations include:
Arena District
Brewery District
COSI
Columbus College of Art & Design
Columbus State Community College
Downtown area
Hilltop
Grandview Avenue
Mt. Carmel Hospital
North Market area
Ohio State University area
Short North
Also earlier this year, 500 of the old meters that were replaced with new smart meters were refurbished and are being installed in locations that previously did not have meters, including the Brewery District, downtown, the Hilltop, Italian Village, the Short North, and city streets immediately east of The Ohio State University. Eventually, these meters will also be upgraded with new technology as the City replaces the entire meter fleet.
In addition to debit and credit cards and coins, the new smart meters will also take pre-paid parking cards that are sold by the City. Motorists will have two choices when purchasing the new pre-paid parking cards for use on the new smart meters:
Rechargeable cards that carry a maximum balance of $50. After drawing down the balance to pay for parking at the new smart meters, motorists can put additional dollars up to $50 on the cards by visiting the Parking Violations Bureau at the city’s Impound Lot at 2700 Impound Lot Road
Non-rechargeable cards available in denominations of $25, $50 and $100 that can be discarded after the entire balance is used. Non-rechargeable card users are encouraged to dispose of the used cards at any recycling location.
The City continues to sell pre-paid parking meter cards that will work in only the old meters; these cards will not work in the new smart meters. Pre-paid meter cards for the old meters will carry a maximum balance of $50.
Pre-paid parking meters cards for either the smart meters or old meters are sold at 109 North Front Street, room 301, and at the Parking Violations Bureau at the City’s Impound Lot at 2700 Impound Lot Road. Both versions of the parking meter cards can be purchased with cash or credit cards. Due to newer technology, the new meter cards will not work in the old meters. A customer can transfer the balance on their old meter card to a new smart meter card free-of-charge by visiting the Parking Violations Bureau at 2700 Impound Lot Road.
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