Park Plymouth Tests New Card-Reading Meters

The Plymouth Growth and Development Corporation, the organization that manages the Park Plymouth program, announced that 32 new, solar powered credit card-enabled parking meters will be installed on Town Wharf as part of a 90-day test pilot program. The testing begins tomorrow, Aug. 16. These new meters will accept MasterCard, Visa and coins.
 
“Throughout the Parking Master Plan development process, the number one request from our customers and the community was to provide multiple payment options at the meter, including a credit card option,"   PGDC President Leighton Price said in a statement. "If the meter pilot program is successful, this technology could eliminate the need for customers to carry around a pocket full of coins for use at our single space meters."

The new "green" solar powered meters also have several optional features that will be considered if the pilot program proves successful including providing the customer the ability to pay by cell phone, add time to the meter from remote locations, and receive cell phone expiration notices after paying. 

"The added conveniences of the new meter technology has proven very popular in other communities", Park Plymouth's director of operations John Burke said. Due to the increased costs of both the new meter technology and credit card transactions, Park Plymouth will test the 32 meters at an increased rate of one dollar per hour. Throughout the 90-day test period, Park Plymouth will evaluate customer use, satisfaction, reliability, and costs vs. revenues to determine whether they should purchase the units in 2012.  

For more information about the pilot program, visit www.parkplymouth.com, and download a map of the test pilot location.