City OKs $581K for digital parking meters 

Posted: 7:47 pm Wed, August 25, 2010
By Melody Simmons
Daily Record Business Writer

Digital parking is here to stay.

That’s what city parking officials said on Wednesday after the Board of Estimates voted to spend $581,250 on 75 additional solar-powered digital parking meters for Baltimore streets.

“They are very popular,” said Tiffany James, spokeswoman for the Parking Authority of Baltimore City, which manages the high-tech meters. “They have been very successful in terms of managing the parking better.”

The purchase brings the total to nearly 800 digital meters, called EZ Park meters, around town. The devices allow drivers to use coins or credit cards to pay for parking and then print out a small receipt that lists the expiration time, to display on the dashboard.

James said the digital meters will replace the coin-operated parking meters that used to line city streets mounted on steel poles. The new meters offer a cleaner look, she said, and allow for about 10 percent additional parallel parking space because drivers are not wedded to a particular space dictated by a meter.

“The meter heads allow for 22 linear feet between each [machine],” she said. “Whereas the new meters don’t restrict that space, allowing for more room for cars.”

The new meters will be purchased from Tampa-based CALE Parking USA. The board’s vote was the fifth time city officials have the machines since 375 digital meters first appeared on Baltimore’s streets in 2006.

Parking officials said about 55 percent of all parking meter transactions are made by credit card. Parking rates in five of the city’s most popular areas, including the downtown business district, Fells Point and the Inner Harbor, increased this summer to $2 per hour from $1 per hour to help plug a budget shortfall.

The new meters are programmed to charge different rates depending on the time of day, parking officials said, and are able to send a signal to a central computer if there is a malfunction.