TOLEDO RETURNS TO COIN PARKING METERS Publique Deposited
- Here's a man-bites-dog story for you. For years we've been reporting on the demise of transportation tokens and coin-fed parking meters and toll booths as electronic payments take over the world. But Toledo, OH is bucking the trend and going retro with hybrid parking meters that accept coins. Huzzah! -Editor
People parking in downtown Toledo may have noticed a change to some of the parking meters.Drivers used to pay at a nearby kiosk, called “pay and display.†with change or a credit card. They would then put the receipt on their dashboard.
Only four kiosks were needed to cover about 32 spaces on Constitution and Speilbusch.
But now, Park Smart, the company that handles parking in the area, is making a change.
The company is reverting back to the old coin-operated single-space meters.
After a 10-year run, Park Smart says they were at the end of their life. Toledo’s cold winters have damaged the meters.
Since the cost of replacing them would be about $50,000, the company has decided to make the switch.
“The choices are based on two: the cost and the customer experience. And also just following industry trends, and one is moving away and it just happened to be that ours were at end of life,†said the Vice President of Park Smart, Dan Fortenberry. “Probably half of our meters in Toledo also are the credit card accepting single space meters. And that's the way the industry's going.â€
Fortenberry said the company wants to still offer customers different ways to pay. He says its actually easy for them to allow customers to use credit cards because there’s less cash to be handled that way.
With the meter switch, customers will still be able to pay without coins. The Park Smart meters will be equipped with a pay-by-phone feature.
To read the complete article, see:
Coin-operated meters are back in downtown Toledo (www.toledonewsnow.com/story/29877510/coin-operated-meters-are-back-in-downtown-toledo) - 2015-08-30
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