The city of Durango is installing hundreds of upgraded parking meters this year designed to make it easier for drivers to see how much time they paid for and allow them to pay for parking through a mobile app.
Although parking meters in downtown Durango were retrofitted in 2013 to accept credit and debit cards, they are not ubiquitous throughout the city. And the meters that did accept credit and debit cards were difficult to read, said Parking Operations Manager Wade Moore.
The credit card meters installed six years ago are becoming obsolete – manufacturers aren’t making replacement parts anymore, Moore said. Those meters cost about $500 each at the time.
The new meters are easier to read and outfitted with technology required for an app-based meter payment. Many cities around the country use a variety of mobile apps – including ParkNYC, ParkMobile and PayByPhone – to offer drivers a more convenient means of paying to park. The more advanced meters cost less than $300, Moore said.
The number of parking meters around Durango that accept credit and debit cards surpassed the number of coin-fed meters earlier this year, Moore said. By the end of 2019, Moore said he hopes to have 750 of about 1,000 parking meters outfitted with electronic banking technology.
The department hopes to have all meters in Durango outfitted for digital payment sometime next year, he said. Once all the new meters are in, Moore said the city may seek a vendor to allow drivers to pay for parking on their mobile phones.
At the time Durango installed meters that accept debit and credit cards, about 25% of meter payments were made with a credit or debit card. This summer, about 35% of transactions for parking were made by credit or debit card.
“You can pick whatever time you want instead of being limited to the amount of change in your pocket,” Moore said.
And ever since the cost of a parking ticket increased from $12 to $25 in Durango, more people have been complying with paying the meter.
But that doesn’t mean all parking spots are taken, said Tim Walsworth, executive director of the Durango Business Improvement District. He keeps statistics on parking along Main, East Second and Narrow Gauge avenues and found that in 2018, and for the first half of 2019, about 45% of all parking spots were open on average from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Adding credit or debit card payment processing technology to parking meters is “great to give people another option, not everybody has coins,” Walsworth said.
“Not everybody has one of those city parking cards, but most people will have a credit or debit card,” he said.
And although people may complain about paid parking, downtown businesses would be worse without it, Walsworth said. Think about it like a restaurant and tables, he said. Food establishments want two or three groups of customers to cycle through a table rather than just one group, so managers use tactics to keep people from staying too long.
It’s the same for parking meters, Walsworth said. If someone doesn’t have to pay to park somewhere, and there aren’t any consequences for staying long periods, then downtown employees may occupy many of the spots their bosses would rather leave open for customers.
“People don’t like to pay, they hate it when they get a ticket – but a credit card allows an option so you don’t get a ticket,” Walsworth said. “The meters are good for business because they get turnover in space.”
bhauff@durangoherald.com
