Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News Along Old Woodward south of Maple, Birmingham is testing six parking kiosks that provide paper tickets to be place inside car windows. The city hopes to replace most of its 1,270 meters with the machines,

Birmingham cranks up parking system trial

Coin meters could make way for kiosks that accept bills and credit cards, dispense receipts.

By Joe Menard / The Detroit News

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BIRMINGHAM -- April Marshall was surprised to find blue canvas bags over the parking meters outside the Starbucks Coffee on Old Woodward on Monday afternoon.

At first, she thought maybe the meters were broken, but upon closer examination realized the covers were instructing her to pay for parking at an electronic kiosk nearby.

"This is the first time we saw it in Michigan," said the 31-year-old Oak Park resident, who had seen such machines in Utah and Canada.

The city unveiled six of the Parkeon kiosks downtown on Monday in a 90-day experiment to see how they're accepted by the public. If successful, the city hopes to gradually replace most of its existing 1,270 meters with the machines, which can be configured to accept cash, coins, credit and debit cards and prepaid cards.

"We're going to try it out and see how it works," said Deputy Police Chief Don Studt. "It's a new technology. It's very big in Europe."

The machines work on a "pay and display" system in which users buy an amount of parking time and leave a receipt on their dashboard or driver's side window. The motorist also keeps a small piece of paper for their records.

Police officials say the $7,300 to $10,000 solar-powered machines can save the city and motorists time and money. One machine can take the place of eight to 14 meters and offer a variety of payment options, Studt said.

"The maintenance is so much less," he said. "Rather than a dozen meters, you have one machine."

And motorists who still have time remaining can use it at a different parking spot in the city.

"I think that would be great," said 23-year-old Matt Hotra of Troy, who used the machine on Old Woodward on Monday. "They're easy to use."

The city paid about $3,000 to test the six machines along Old Woodward from Maple Road to Merrill Street and outside the police station. They replaced about 60 meters.

To promote them, the city will distribute about 200 prepaid cards with $5 on each of them in about two weeks.

You can reach Joe Menard at (248) 647-7429 or jmenard@detnews.com.