'Smart' parking meters catching on across U.S.

— -- The brick and cobblestone streets in the historical district of Charleston, S.C., are getting a high-tech touch.

Installation of "smart," card-operated parking meters began last month in the 339-year-old city, says Hernan Peña, director of the Charleston's department of transportation. So far, he says, about 900 of 1,800 planned meters have been installed.

Charleston is one of the latest examples of cities across the USA — including the nation's biggest — converting from drop-in-a-coin-and-twist-the-dial machines to a new generation of meters.

Although some form of the technology has been used outside the USA for about 20 years, and here for at least 10, "it's catching on in more and more cities as aging parking meters need to be replaced and new technology is being introduced," says Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, a non-profit association working to spread the use of smart-card technology.

About 200 people put cash on cards the first three days after the Charleston program was announced, Peña says.

One of them was Diana Shoaf, treasurer at The Citadel military college in Charleston. She says the meters are saving her money on lunchtime stops, because she reinserts her card when she's ready to leave and gets a refund for unused time.

"The nice thing is I don't have to carry change around in the car or in my purse," she says.

The meters — some of which also take coins — include solar-powered devices that take credit or debit cards, meters that can be paid by cellphone, and meters linked by wireless networks that can be remotely controlled and alert officers to parking violations, Vanderhoof says.

Glen Hellman, CEO of Bethesda, Md.-based smart-meter manufacturer IntelliPark, explains that a customer with an account for a controlled-access lot can pull into a spot, call the meter system by cellphone and enter the parking space number and the amount of money for the time they want. Hellman says his single meters sell for about $150 if about 5,000 are purchased.

The cost for multispace meters ranges from $7,000 to $10,000, according to Ian Newberg, of Parkeon, a manufacturer of smart parking meters with North American headquarters in Moorestown, N.J.

Newberg cited the development of advanced electronics and solar-panel technology as factors driving the growth.

Among recent developments:

•New York City is in the middle of a six-month trial of a "PARK Smart" program in Greenwich Village, says Scott Gastel, a spokesman for the city's Department of Transportation (DOT). The meter rates go up from $1 per hour to $2 per hour during the busiest part of the day to try to increase turnover, he says.

•Los Angeles replaced 6,000 parking meters last year with about 1,000 multispace stations that take credit cards or cash and can be reserved by cellphone, says Bruce Gillman, a spokesman for the city's DOT.

•Chicago signed a $1.15 billion deal in December with Chicago Parking Meters, a private company, that creates incentives for the expansion of cashless parking systems, according to Ed Walsh, spokesman for the city's Department of Revenue.

•San Francisco is about to install underground sensors that tell whether a vehicle is parked in a space. Then, meters in 6,000 of the city's 24,000 parking spaces will make it possible for motorists to find parking spaces online from their cellphones, says Judson True, of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

•Washington, D.C., has installed multispace smart meters that take credit cards or coins in six neighborhoods and plans to install more, says D.C. DOT spokeswoman Karyn LeBlanc.

"They are more convenient. I don't have to go back out and pay again because I pick the time amount I want to park for," says Scott Joiner of Annapolis, Md.

•Denver, which already has a "cash key" pre-paid meter system in which motorists insert a key-like device into a meter to pay for parking time, is trying out solar-powered meters that take credit and debit cards as well as coins, according to Christine Downs, a spokeswoman for the city's Public Works Department.

Portland, Ore., one of the smart-meter pioneers, saw an increase of more than $2 million in parking revenue between 2002 and 2005 after replacing its more than 7,000 meters with 1,130 multispace meters, according to Randy McCourt of DKS Associates, a transportation planning and engineering firm. "Any community that's got a substantive stock of parking meters, I would highly encourage it," McCourt says.

Barnett reports for The Greenville News in South Carolina. Contributing: Rebecca Kern and Drew FitzGerald, USA TODAY.