New parking system will be an ‘education process’
Preliminary work underway for new system
Workers are already doing preliminary work for a new parking system in downtown Royal Oak that is set to debut in a couple of weeks.
The city has been working with a Minnesotabased company called Municipal Parking Services. Last fall MPS did a pilot test with several of its meters at parking spots on Main Street near Fourth Street.
About 800 of the new smart meters will replace existing meters for onstreet and city parking lots.
Business owners and Downtown Development Authority members have talked with police and city officials about the MPS system.
“In my opinion, in the long run it’s going to be a good thing,” said Mike Sophiea, chairman of the DDA and owner of the Sidebar tavern on Fourth Street. “I think if there are any concerns it’s the education process with this being a new system. My understanding is this system isn’t being used anywhere else in the area so people won’t be familiar with it already. It’s user friendly and it’s just a matter of education and utilizing it to the best of everyone’s ability.”
City Commissioners split in a 4-3 vote when they approved the MPS meters back in June.
Parking rates for the new meters will stay the same, but fines for violators will jump from $10 to $20 after the meters are in and the city does a public education program.
Police Chief Corrigan O’Donohue has said the system is expected to increase motorists’ compliance with paying for time at meters to about 75 percent.
A study earlier this year showed that less than half of people pay for their parking meter time in Royal Oak, he said.
The MPS meters have a camera that takes a picture of a motorist’s license plate and a ticket is issued if the time at the meter isn’t paid for.
City Manager Paul Brake said the new meters will bring uniformity to city metered parking, which now consists of a mix of smart meters and coinonly operated meters.
“There are technological advantages to the MPS meters that patrons will enjoy,” he said.
Those advantages include an app the MPS uses with a motorist’s license plate number and credit card information, Brake added. That feature frees people from having to worry about watching a meter to see if they need to pay more money.
The system and app can also direct a person to the closest open meter to their destination, he said.
One change coming is that motorists parking at any of 126 spots on Washington Avenue between Lincoln and Fourth Street, and on Seventh Street between Washington and Main Street, will have to back into the angled spots.
Reverse-angle parking became necessary so that the MPS meter cameras can scan license plates. Michigan drivers have only a rear license plate.
For safety reasons, the Michigan Department of Transportation currently only allows reverse angle parking or parallel parking on its trunklines, which MDOT deems safer for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. There are fewer accidents when a motorist can see the traffic they are pulling into than when backing out.
Some communities in southwest Michigan have studied or incorporated reverse angle parking, along with larger cities nationally such as Austin, Texas, Charlotte, N.C., and Baltimore, Md.
Results have been mixed with some business owners and motorists. Paw Paw Village in Van Buren County eliminated the back-in parking model. In Baltimore, however, residents petitioned to get reverse angle parking installed in part of the city.
The back-in parking spaces are wider, Brake said.
“I do have a little concern about” the back-in system, Sophiea said. “I’ve never used the angle-in backward (parking). Backing in might bring some difficulty, mostly with the car behind you stopping so you can back in. What I’m told is that once people get used to it, it’s a good system.”