Do You Carry a Parking Meter Cash Key? Or Would You Rather Pay With a Credit Card?

By Robert Wilonsky Tue., Nov. 22 2011 at 3:38 PM

For whatever reason Ken Kalthoff got a little distracted whilst reporting the piece you see above about the city experimenting with solar-powered parking meters that take credit cards (all together now: finally). Ken spends most of the piece trying to get his cash key re-upped. First of all: Why? Does he also miss eight-track tapes? Also: The Dallas PD link embedded in the KXAS story says you do that at the Oak Cliff Municipal Center, which would have saved him -- and viewers -- a lot of time. Anyway.

Back to the new meters. They've actually been in use behind Dallas City Hall for about five, six months, and City Hall spokesman Frank Librio tells Unfair Park today "we've been getting a lot of good feedback," no surprise there -- though I wonder if Dwaine Caraway still wants to do away with downtown meters altogether. Librio says there's a chance the city could replace all 4,238 of its parking meters with the modern option. He's looking into what kind of time line there might be. But it wouldn't come cheap: He says the new meters run $530 a pop, though, of course, the price may be negotiable if and when it comes before council.

Update at 3:56 p.m.: Librio says these credit-card meters aren't just behind City Hall, but scattered around the West End and Arts District and near DPD HQ and the muni court. "And they're looking at even newer technology, which would involve using an app and paying by smartphone, which may come late 2012," he says. "And there's a desire to go to multi-space meters in private and city lots, so you'd get rid of a meter every however many feet. But that's further on down the road."

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Mister_Mean

Not even 21st century parking meters would make me want to go down town Dallas and park. The city has a long standing problem with parking (and the related booting/fines/towing) that never seems to be solved. Last year we had stories about people’s cars being booted down town and after much noise and posturing by the city council and staff it seems that that has not changed. Lets face it no matter how much lip stick the city tires to put on the city of Dallas under it all is the same old song and dance. When they (the city) are tying to close long established businesses they are going after non informed visitors (and citizens) in a “gotcha” attitude designed to hit the public’s wallets.

Cuecat

Better watch out or John Wiley Price's stooge, Willis Johnson, will be in line to get a piece of the action since he landed the contract for Affiliated Computer Systems to get in the parking meter and red light camera ticket collections business. Even though Price's puppet and ACS had no experience! And, for higher fees than others who bid on the contracts! No surprise the new meters are so expensive since these two slime balls are in cahoots with ACS. No justice, no peace! They just want some equity.

Guest

this sounds like a job for...CUECAT!

NewsDog

The City of Dallas and sophisticated technology, this does not bode well. How many problems and scams await?

Scruffygeist

Why can't they do an app and an RFID card like European and Asian mass transit systems?

Phillip Wu

I've been to Toronto twice and not seen a single parking meter in that city. What they have instead are parking pay machines, a couple every block. You pay with cash or credit and put the slip on your dashboard. They use these parking pay machines in New York City too. Very easy to use, and no hunting for quarters.

Dallas could learn a thing or two about being urban. Yeah, you could take away paid parking altogether (which Dallas doesn't have much of anyway), but then you'd be no different than a big 1990s suburb. Dallas is already just a downtown surrounded by suburbia on all sides and only a small handful of neighborhoods that can be truly classified as urban...do people really want to make suburbanize Downtown? Instead of free parking, Dallas needs changes in the built environment, changes in building code, and changes in parking requirements. Funny that those scant neighborhoods that actually have parking meters (Deep Ellum, old Oak Cliff) are the ones that are actually urban and not just suburbia masquerading as urban (Victory Park, etc.) or neighborhoods that people in Dallas/Texas would consider urban but anyone from real urban areas would classify as suburban (Knox-Henderson, Uptown, Bishop Arts District).

Chris Danger

They have the same thing in LA and Pasadena, you have a pay machine setup for a specific number of spots on the street or garage and you pay w/ cash, credit/debit or a stored RFID-type card, which you either pay at the time of parking or when you leave, eliminating a middle man in a booth. The main issue I see w/ Dallas is the fact JWP, Willis and their brothers from other mothers are going to try to get a piece of the action, that has to be stopped right there.

And phillip, I agree, I live in Ellum and its about the only "true" urban neighborhood in Dallas. We would rather see the meters yanked and replaced w/ this system.

3rd Wheel Marketing

They have them in friggin El Paso. They make too much money off these rickety old meters to change them. They'd rather make $35 off a parking ticket than engender good will and have people continually coming to neighborhoods.

Between those jackass parking lots booting people (which has thankfully stopped) and the 4 hour limits on meters with the fucking ruthless meter maids there are a lot of people who won't come to Deep Ellum.