New meters raising revenues and hackles

Boston's new high-tech parking meters along a four-block stretch of Newbury Street are keeping pace with their high-rent surroundings: They are generating at least 34 percent more money per space than their predecessors.

City officials say the month-old meters, designed to accept coins, dollar bills, and credit and debit cards, are bringing in more money because they rarely break. But Boston drivers are grumbling that the new meters force users to buy more time than they want, and no longer let them piggyback on a previous parker's time.

Kelsey Kirk Hambley of the South End couldn't get one of the meters to accept her dollar bills last week, so she gave up and used her credit card, which required several attempts before it worked. The machine automatically charged her card $2 for two hours even though she needed only 20 minutes.

"I think it's a scam," she said. As a passerby asked her what the meter was, Hambley remarked, "It's a nightmare, that's what it is."

Consumers have never been big fans of parking meters, ever since Carl C. Magee of Oklahoma City invented the device in the early 1930s as a way to increase turnover in parking spaces.

Boston's new pay-and-display meters are far more advanced than their predecessors. One meter records payment for seven or eight parking spaces. The device is solar-powered and offers multiple payment options, allowing city workers to collect money from meters less frequently -- once every seven to 10 days instead of three to four times a week.

After paying, parkers get a receipt showing when their time expires. The meters recommend posting the receipt inside the vehicle's curbside window using the removable sticky backside as tape. If you lose the receipt or forget to display it on your car, you're out of luck: The receipt has to be visible to avoid a ticket.

Drivers interviewed last week on Newbury Street liked the aesthetic benefits of having just 23 meters in an area that previously had 162. They also appreciated the many payment options.

But some had difficulty getting the machines, installed from Arlington to Exeter streets, to accept dollar bills and, to a lesser extent, credit cards. Users also struggled figuring out how to tape the receipts to their windows. And they missed the ability to use time left by a previous parker and to feed the meter for extra time if they were running late.

When motorists discovered the meters required them to buy an hour of time if they paid with a dollar bill, or two hours if they paid with plastic, they said the city was being greedy.

"That's ridiculous," said Laurel Miyake of the South End, who paid with a credit card, as she raced off to an appointment.

Edgar Peraza of the South End, said he has used the meters many times and likes them. But he said the mandatory purchase requirements for credit cards and dollar bills were annoying, particularly just before 8 p.m., when parking on Newbury Street becomes free.

Daniel Hofmann , deputy director of Boston's Transportation Department, said people paying with dollar bills automatically receive an hour because the machines don't give change. He said the city decided to require a two-hour purchase with credit cards because of the convenience offered and the fees involved in processing payments.

Hofmann said there have been glitches with the machines, particularly in accepting dollar bills, but that overall they have worked well. "We really haven't gotten any complaints," he said.

Hofmann said more of the meters would be added to city streets soon, subject to budget considerations. Under a contract with the manufacturer, Parkeon of Moorestown, N.J., Boston has the option of buying 1,000 meters over the next three years, which could effectively replace all of the city's existing 6,600 single-space meters. The first 25 meters cost $7,219 apiece; after that the price rises to $10,000 apiece, for a total of nearly $10 million.

The 23 new meters installed Oct. 19 generated revenue of $10.34 per space per day during the last half of October, an increase of 34 percent over what the single-space meters earned during the same period a year ago. The city had projected about a 20 percent increase overall because drivers no longer could piggyback on others' time.

The preferred method of payment has been dollar bills (45 percent), followed by coins (40 percent), and plastic (15 percent).

At the start of November, Hofmann said, revenue from the new meters increased to $11.16 per space per day, up 44 percent from a year ago. The city collected a record $10 million from all parking meters last year.

Hofmann said the chief reason revenues are higher from the meters is that the new devices have malfunctioned only about 1 percent of the time. The old meters, which were prone to vandalism, didn't work about 25 percent of the time, he said.

Parkeon's website says its meters increase revenue by up to 50 percent because the credit card option increases the average payment and piggybacking is eliminated. Company officials could not be reached for comment.

Cambridge installed similar meters from a different manufacturer in off-street lots a year ago and plans to locate more soon in Harvard Square. Susan E. Clippinger , that city's director of traffic, parking, and transportation, said the Cambridge meters accept only coins and credit cards. She said Cambridge decided against accepting dollar bills because of the difficulty in processing them.

Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.