Parking meter days numbered
Replacement to begin this summer
The weeks are numbered for downtown parking meters. The City of Lethbridge will soon be replacing them with new multispace kiosks.
The city will start replacing the machines this summer, with a target date of late summer/early fall to turn on the system.
City council approved the project last September. It involves the replacement of the existing meters with 170 pay-by-plate multi-space machines (MSMs) with licence plate recognition enforcement.
Another 60 single-space smart meters will be installed at accessible parking spaces and in four isolated locations with foot patrol enforcement.
The new system brings the city up to date with modern parking technologies and is intended to establish consistent parking controls throughout the downtown.
With the new system, customers would walk to the MSM, punch in their licence plate number and choose a payment method. They would not need to return to their vehicle to display the receipt. Customers could also move around within a particular zone.
Project manager Val Fellger is happy to report the project is on schedule. The city will be sending out a request for purchase to technology vendors this week. She said residents will start seeing some of the replacements in June.
“It’s going to take us about eight weeks to get everything installed on the streets,” said Fellger. “How we plan on replacing is actually leaving all of the existing single-space parking meters out on the street, and simply putting in the multi-space meters in the locations along the street where they need to be, leaving the single-space up and running. Then of, course, once all the multi-space machines are in place, we’ll do a big rollout.”
Fellger said the city will do a “soft launch” closer to June to remind the public the machines are being installed. Then a full launch before the MSMs come into effect.
“Once we make sure the new system is up and running, we’ll slowly start removing the meters on street block by block,” she explained. “We will be leaving the poles that have the bike racks and simply topping them off to make sure we still have that multi-modal and bike rack accessibility for people.”
The replacement has been a long time coming, and Fellger is excited to see it moving along. She said they continue to have “really good” communications with downtown partners including the Downtown Business Revitalization Zone, the Heart of Our City Committee, the Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Lethbridge.
“We’ve been working with them as we go along, making sure that we are doing the right thing at each stage,” said Fellger. “So far it’s been positive support, so we’re ready for this next and final push through.”
The city will be asking them to assist by sending a short questionnaire to their business members to get more feedback regarding zoning options.
“See if we can get a consensus in the downtown about what the downtown would like to see,” said Fellger. “If not, we’ll move with the implementation of the two zones and then monitor and see if more zones need to be added as needed, once we get some data.”
The project was budgeted $2 million from parking reserve funds. Council reported earlier that parking rates would not increase. However, paid parking will be expanded into the current free-timed zoned areas, which are located mostly between 5 and 6 Avenue South.
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