Brookline aiming to overhaul parking meters

By Brock Parker, Globe Correspondent

Using cash or a credit card at a Brookline parking meter will become a more common option in 2010, as the town prepares to replace more than a thousand aging parking meters with multi-space meters.

Brookline Transportation Director Todd Kirrane said the town is including $1.4 million in its capital improvement budget for Fiscal Year 2011 to replace parking meters. About 1,200 single-spaced meters will be replaced with multi-space meters, Kirrane said.

Unlike single-space meters, the new multi-space models accept cash, and credit cards in addition to coins.

For the past year, the town has been experimenting with multi-spaced meters at a parking lot in Brookline Village, and a parking lot in Coolidge Corner on Babcock Street.

"Our revenue has gone up in those two lots and the cost of operation has gone down," Kirrane said.

While more multi-spaced meters will be installed, Kirrane said they will not replace all of the single-space meters in town. Brookline has about 2,500 meters, which generate about $2.6 million in revenue for the town per year.

Multi-space meters cost $12,000 a piece, but Kirrane said operating and maintenance costs are lower because fewer are needed. Multi-space meters also send text messages to technicians when a malfunction occurs, which decreases the amount of time a broken meter is not taking in revenue. The meters are also aesthetically pleasing, Kirrane said.

Kirrane said the additional multi-space meters will begin being rolled out in September.