State College is going high tech with new customer friendly multi-space meters, which will offer multiple payment methods including a mobile application, credit cards, bills and coins. The new system will affect both on-street and lot parking and should get rid of one of the biggest problems facing State College—not enough spare change!
“The old system was simply antiquated by itself,” said Parking Manager Charles DeBow. “One of our biggest complaints is that people intended to pay but didn’t have enough quarters.”
T2 Systems will be building the new parking meters—Digital Payment Technologies LUKE II meters—that will use License Plate-Enable Parking (LEP). The LEP system cuts costs by making paper or decal permits obsolete by using the actual license plate as the parking credential.
“The process is simple. The screen [on the kiosk] directs the customer to input the correct information. If you want to have a text message sent to you 15 minutes before time runs out you may enter in your cell number. If you paid via credit card you can actually add more time by texting the machine back,” said DeBow.
The new parking app that is used with the LUKE II meters will allow remote payment with credit cards, including the ability to remotely add time to your meter. DeBow says using the smartphone app is even easier than the kiosks. “Park, open app, select the zone (it will be on the meter), select the amount of time you want and you’re done!”
According to DeBow the smartphone app won’t cost the Borough a penny. Instead, parkmobile.com charges a 35 cent fee per transaction to cover costs. “For every parking ticket you don’t get because you paid via the app, you saved enough money to pay for about 17 transactions.”
The upgrade is being funded completely separately from public tax revenue; all of the funds came straight from revenue generated by the current parking facilities. The upgrade is part of the Downtown State College Improvement project. Installation is set to begin on April 21st and should be completed by the 24th.
