CLEVELAND — Editor's Note: The above photo is an example of a "smart meter" used in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The days of searching your console for coins to feed the parking meters in downtown Cleveland are coming to an end.
On Thursday, the city of Cleveland announced that it plans to modernize the operations of its entire on-street parking system. Coin operated meters throughout the city will be replaced with smart parking meters and a new mobile parking payment service platform. This will allow customers to pay for their parking through an app, text message, or by scanning a QR code.
“Modernizing our city’s on-street parking system will make the public’s experience much more customer friendly and convenient,” said Mayor Justin Bibb in a statement. “This is a big upgrade that makes payments easy, allows us to see parking trends, analyze data, and improve efficiency.”
Currently, Cleveland's on-street parking system consists of approximately 2,500 single-space parking meters and 26 solar powered, multi-space smart meter kiosks. The city says the new system "will be a seamless network of single-space and multi-space smart, credit card enabled parking meters and kiosks."
The city is taking submissions from vendors to handle the job of modernizing the on-street parking system from now through November 3.
“This project will involve taking a look at parking across the city to assess demand, evaluate lots, establish defined parking zones, and look at rates and revenue,” added Cleveland Chief Operating Officer Bonnie Teeuwen. “Introducing additional payment options also eliminates the hassle of making sure you have quarters to park.”
Cleveland leaders add that the new smart parking solution will improve efficiency in the area of enforcement, through new license plate recognition equipment for mobile and handheld devices.
Implementation of the smart parking system is expected to begin in summer 2023.
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