New, cash-free parking meters to be rolled out in Oakland Friday

Students and visitors planning to park on the streets of Oakland can leave their quarters at…Students and visitors planning to park on the streets of Oakland can leave their quarters at home without the fear of expired meters this Friday.

The Public Parking Authority of Pittsburgh has partnered with Cale America Inc. to install a new pay-by-license parking meter system that replaces single-space meters with multi-space machines in the North Shore, Oakland, SouthSide Works, the Downtown area, the Strip District and some PPAP surface lots.

This phase of the meter technology upgrade includes installing 504 meters as part of the capital improvements program for the Authority, PPAP spokeswoman Patricia Konesky said in an email.

While the North Shore meters are currently the only meters that are fully operational, meters installed in the entire Oakland area are scheduled to be fully functioning as of Friday, Aug. 31. The installations, which are to be completed by late September, will replace some 3,000 single-space street meters currently in place across Pittsburgh, according to a Pittsburgh Parking Authority press release on the project.

Konesky said that the new machines are an easy, three-step process that grants an alternative payment method to quarters and an optional receipt.

“These machines are as easy as one-two-three,” Konesky said. “One: Enter your license plate number. Two: Make your payment, either with quarters or credit cards. Three: Go.”

While some large, silver multi-space meters have been in place around Oakland in areas around Hillman and Carnegie libraries, the new meters do not require a printed receipt to be returned to vehicles.

Konesky said that the new machines can print receipts at the user’s request but that the new system does not require receipts to be placed on vehicles’ windshields for enforcement purposes.

According to the Pittsburgh Parking Authority press release, 60 of the new machines will be dedicated to replacing the previous multi-space parking models.

Kelsey Heidenreich, a 21-year-old who regularly parks in Oakland where she is employed at The Porch restaurant, is familiar with the older multi-space parking models that have stood along with the single-space meters on Bigelow Boulevard.

“[Parking] is pretty awful because the area is so busy, but [the multi-space style] is so much more convenient because you can use cash or credit cards or whatever you have,” Heidenreich said. “It’s a lot easier because you don’t need to always have a million quarters on you.”

In late July, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and the Pittsburgh Parking Authority ceremonially purchased a parking space under the new system and established Pittsburgh as the first American city to adopt, on more than a pilot basis, the pay-by-plate technology that the new meters feature.

In a Pittsburgh Parking Authority press release of the event, Ravenstahl said that the new system aligns with improvements being made to upgrade the city.

“Residents will find the process to be an improvement over the coin-dependent system being replaced, and visitors will experience an additional opportunity to discover Pittsburgh as the contemporary, technology-oriented city it has come to be,” Ravenstahl said at the event.

Konesky said that the multi-space pay-by-plate machines are more efficient than single-space meters in regard to maintenance, collections and consumer use. But for some, the change will be an adjustment.

Pittsburgh resident David Rothman approached the new meter system on Forbes Avenue Wednesday in an attempt to park his car and visit Pamela’s restaurant, but he was not impressed by the change.

“I guess I can use my card now, but I don’t see this as a huge improvement,” said Rothman, 67. “The only thing I could think to make it better would be if the machine scanned my license number, but instead I have to look up my number and figure out what to type in. So I’m taking all of that time up instead.”

Rothman said that people should be more concerned with parking meter rates and defective meters.

“I think the amount of credit you get for a quarter is ludicrous. If they want people to come park in Oakland and downtown in the city, more time should be given to the amount put in the meter,” he said. “But I do know that one time I had to pay a fine for parking at a broken meter, so maybe that will be fixed now.”

Konesky said that the $7 million cost of the current program phase includes meter warranty and maintenance for seven years and that the old, single-space meters are retained by the Authority for use in other sections of the city and for inventory replenishing.