City Installing ‘Smart’, Solar-Powered Parking Meters
Beginning Wednesday, the City of El Paso will install new high-tech, multi-payment option parking meters in the Downtown area as part of a pilot project to explore new ways to make on-street parking more convenient, the city’s International Bridges Department announced Tuesday.
The parking meters are solar powered and provide users with several payment options: Smart card; debit or credit card (Visa, MasterCard and Discover); quarters and dollar coins. Smart Cards are city-issued debit cards sold at the Downtown Management District office and at the City Tax Department at City Hall.
“We are excited to be bringing this high-tech, user-friendly green technology to Downtown El Paso. During the pilot period, we will be monitoring the parking meters to see how easy they are to use, as well as, their durability and reliability,” Said Larbi-Cherif, International Bridges Department Director, said in a news release.
The pilot project should last about three months. A total of 31 single space parking meters manufactured by the IPS Group will be tested. Twenty-four parking meters will be installed along the city block bordered by Texas Avenue, Stanton Street and Mills Avenue. The remaining seven parking meters will go up on the east side of the 700 block of S. El Paso Street between Fourth Street and Father Rahm.
There are approximately 1,700 coin-operated parking meters in the Downtown area. At the conclusion of the pilot program, the City of El Paso will analyze the results before deciding on the replacement of the coin-operated parking meters with the multi-pay option parking meters.
