A parking meter is a device used to collect money in exchange for the right to park a vehicle

Vehicle

A vehicle is a device that is designed or used to transport people or cargo. Most often vehicles are manufactured, such as bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats, and aircraft....

 in a particular place for a limited amount of time. Parking meters can be used by municipalities

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 as a tool for enforcing their integrated on-street parking policy, usually related to their traffic and mobility management policies.

History

Holger George Thuesen and Gerald A. Hale designed the first working parking meter, the Black Maria, in 1935. The History Channel's... History's Lost and Found documents their success in developing the first working parking meter. Thuesen and Hale were engineering professors at Oklahoma State and began working on the parking meter in 1933 at the request of Carl C. Magee of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The world's first installed parking meter was in Oklahoma City on July 16, 1935.

Industrial production started in 1936 and expanded until the mid '80s. The first models were based on a coin acceptor, a dial to engage the mechanism and a visible pointer and flag to indicate expiration of paid period. This configuration lasted for more than 40 years, with only a few changes in the exterior design, like the double-headed version and the incorporation of new materials and production techniques.

Upon insertion of coin

Coin

A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....

s into a currency detector

Currency detector

A currency detector is a device that determines if a piece of currency is, or is not, counterfeit. These devices are used in vending machines that accept payment and dispense a product to a customer...

 slot or swiping a credit card

Credit card

A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...

 or smartcard into a slot, and turning a handle (or pressing a key), a timer is set within the meter. Some locations now allow payment by mobile phone

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

 (to remotely record payments for subsequent checking and enforcement). A dial or display on the meter indicates the time remaining. In many cities, all parking meters are designed to use only one type of coin. Use of other coins will fail to register, and the meter may cease to function altogether. For example, in Hackensack, New Jersey

Hackensack, New Jersey

Hackensack is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States and the county seat of Bergen County. Although informally called Hackensack, it was officially named New Barbadoes Township until 1921. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 43,010....

 all parking meters are designed for quarters only.

In 1960, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 hired its first crew of "meter maids"; all were women. It was not until 1967 that the first man was hired.

In the mid '80s, a digital version was introduced, replacing the mechanical parts with electronic components: boards, keyboards and displays. This allowed more flexibility to the meter, as an EEPROM

EEPROM

EEPROM stands for Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory and is a type of non-volatile memory used in computers and other electronic devices to store small amounts of data that must be saved when power is removed, e.g., calibration...

 chip can be reconfigured more easily than corresponding mechanical components.

By the beginning of the '90s, millions of parking meter units had been sold around the world, but the market was already looking into new solutions, like the collective pay and display

Pay and display

Pay and display machines are a subset of ticket machines used for regulating parking in urban areas or in car parks. It relies on a customer purchasing a ticket from a machine and displaying the ticket on the dashboard, or windscreen or passenger window of the vehicle...

 machines and new forms of payment

Payment

A payment is the transfer of wealth from one party to another. A payment is usually made in exchange for the provision of goods, services or both, or to fulfill a legal obligation....

 that appeared along with electronic money

Electronic money

Electronic money is money or scrip that is only exchanged electronically. Typically, this involves the use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems...

 and communication technologies.

Modern advances

See also pay by phone parking

Pay by phone parking

Pay-by-phone parking is a technological innovation which allows any driver parking in a fare required space the option to divert the expense to a credit card via the use of a mobile phone, mobile application or computer, opposed to inserting change or dollar bills into a parking meter or pay and...

More modern parking meters are generically called multispace meters (as opposed to single space meters) and control multiple spaces per block (typically 8-12) or lot (unlimited). While with these meters the parker may have to walk several car lengths to the meter, there are significant benefits in terms of customer service, performance and efficiency. Multispace meters incorporate more customer-friendly features such as on-screen instructions and acceptance of credit cards for payment—no longer do drivers have to have pockets full of coins on hand. They also have many performance benefits that keep them performing better. While they still may be prone to coin jams and other types of vandalism, most of these meters are wireless and can report problems immediately to maintenance staff, who can then fix the meters so that they are not out of service for very long.

With pay by space meters, the driver parks in a space, goes to the meter and enters their space number and payment. The meter memorizes the time remaining, and enforcement personnel press the bay buttons to check for violations.

Other advances with parking meters include vehicle detection technology, which allows the pay by space meters to know when there is a car parked in a space. This opens the door for benefits for parking managers, including providing way-finding (directing drivers to unoccupied spaces via the web or via street signs), enabling remote violation detection, and gathering vital statistics about parking supply and demand.

Another alternative to the traditional parking meter is the use of personal parking meters (in-car meters), small mobile devices that are purchased by the motorist, with a pre-paid parking bank used by the motorist to pay for on-street parking fees. Another technology offers the possibility of reloading money (parking time) to the device via a secure Internet site.
New York City retired its last spring-loaded, single-space, mechanical parking meter at 10:25 a.m. on December 20, 2006. It was located at the southwest corner of West 10th Street and Surf Avenue in Coney Island. “The world changes. Just as the [subway] token went, now the manual meter has gone,” said Iris Weinshall, the city’s transportation commissioner, at a small ceremony marking the occasion, the New York Times reported. The new digital meters, which now account for all of the city's 62,000 single-space parking meters, are more accurate and more difficult to break into.

Another advancement with parking meters are new solar-powered meters that accept credit cards and still coins as well. They were recently added into the Los Angeles, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stated “the city’s Department of Transportation had projected the 10,000 Coin & Card parking meters installed over the last six months would generate 1-1.5 million in revenue each year”.
These parking meters replace the top of the meter, but continuing to keep the same pole, and use solar power, which can help with sending technicians a wireless signal when in need for repair.
These credit card machines accept Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, and can vary at different locations.
DDOT (The District Department of Transportation) states that this new parking meter will provide: “better return on tax payer’s investment, a variety of options, reduced maintenance, a variety of easy payment options, and increased reliability”.

Security issues

Parking meters are exposed to the elements

Weather

Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate...

 and to vandal

Vandalism

Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...

s so protection of the device and its cash

Cash

In common language cash refers to money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins.In bookkeeping and finance, cash refers to current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-immediately...

 contents is a priority. The meters are frequently targeted in areas where parking regulations and enforcement are widely perceived to be unfair and predatory.

Some cities have learned the hard way that these machines must be upgraded regularly, essentially playing an arms race

Arms race

The term arms race, in its original usage, describes a competition between two or more parties for the best armed forces. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation...

 with vandals. In Berkeley, California

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

, the cut-off remains of meter poles were a common sight during the late 1990s, and parking was largely free (and anarchic) throughout the city until the city government installed digital parking meters with heavier poles in 2000 (which were eventually vandalized as well).

Other cities have turned to having meters accept only cards that serve this purpose (such as smart card

Smart card

A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card , is any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits. A smart card or microprocessor cards contain volatile memory and microprocessor components. The card is made of plastic, generally polyvinyl chloride, but sometimes acrylonitrile...

s). However, the expensive card-reading device inside has replaced the money as targets of theft.

Legality

Parking meters have been challenged in court many times for many many years, but are considered legal if the parking meters are used for purposes of parking regulation and not for revenue purposes. In a 1937 case in Oklahoma, H.E. Duncan contended that the ordinances impose a fee for the free use of the streets, which is a right of all citizens of the state. The Courts ruled that free use of the streets is not an absolute right, but agreed with an unpublished 1936 Florida court decision that said, "If it had been shown that the streets on which parking meters have been installed under this ordinance are not streets where the traffic is sufficiently heavy to require any parking regulations of this sort, or that the city was making inordinate and unjustified profits by means of the parking meters, and was resorting to their use not for regulatory purposes but for revenue only, there might have been a different judgment."

The very first parking meter ticket resulted in the first court challenge to metered parking enforcement. Rev. C.H. North of Oklahoma's City's Third Pentecostal Holiness Church had his citation dismissed when he claimed he had gone to a grocery store to get change for the meter.

The Supreme Court of North Carolina judged that a city could not pledge on-street parking meter fee proceeds as security for bonds issued to build off-street parking decks. The court said, "Streets of a municipality are provided for public use. A city board has no valid authority to rent, lease or let a parking space on the streets to an individual motorist 'for a fee' or to charge a rate or toll therefor. Much less may it lease or let the whole system of on-street parking meters for operation by a private corporation or individual."
In 2009, a lawsuit filed by the Independent Voters of Illinois/Independent Precinct Organization (IVI-IPO) claimed the City of Chicago’s 2008 concession agreement for the operation of its parking meters to a private company violated state law. In November, 2010, certain portions of the suit were thrown out by the Cook County Circuit Court, including the claim that the city was using public funds unlawfully to enforce parking regulations after it was decided by the presiding judge that the city retained its ability to write tickets and enforce parking laws. However, the judge allowed other parts of the suit to stand, including an accusation that the city unlawfully conceded some of its policing power and its ability to set parking and traffic policy to the private company in the concession agreement. As of January, 2011, the suit remains active, with the City of Chicago maintaining that the city retains all policing power, maintains responsibility for traffic management, and, through the concession agreement, retains control over rates.

Variable pricing

Dr. Donald Shoup

Donald Shoup

Donald Curran Shoup is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and widely-regarded expert in the economics and availability of parking...

 argues that parking meters should have variable prices to maintain an 85% occupancy rate. This would facilitate an optimum turnover of vehicles resulting in an optimum turnover of customers for roadside shops. It would also reduce the amount of time wasted looking for a place to park.

Alternatives

In the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 states of Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 and the whole of the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

, holders of a Disabled parking permit

Disabled parking permit

A disabled parking permit, also known as a handicapped permit, disabled placard, disabled badge and "Blue Badge" in the European Union, is displayed upon parking a vehicle carrying a person whose mobility would be otherwise significantly impaired by one or more of age, illness, disability or...

 are exempt from parking meter fees. Previously, Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 also allowed persons with disabled plates or placards to park at meters without paying, but due to misuse of the privilege by persons who used permits which belonged to others, the privilege was revoked. In some other states handicapped parking meters exist, which not only must be paid at the same rate as regular meters, but one will also be subject to receiving a violation ticket if a valid handicap license plate or placard is not displayed on the vehicle.

Some cities have gone to a device called a Parkulator, in which the user purchases a display device, usually for $5 or $10, then loads it with as much time as they care to purchase. They then activate the device when they park at a location, and place the display device on their dashboard so it is visible from the front windshield. The device counts down the time remaining on the device while it remains activated. When they return, then the clock stops running, and the person does not overpay for time unused. In the UK it is now possible to park and pay with credit or debit card through a dedicated telephone service. Civil Enforcement Officers that patrol the parking area are automatically informed through their hand held devices.

See also

• Coupon parking
• Decriminalised parking enforcement
  Decriminalised parking enforcement
  Decriminalised parking enforcement is the name given in the United Kingdom to the civil enforcement of car parking regulations, carried out by civil enforcement officers, operating on behalf of either a local authority or a private firm. The Road Traffic Act 1991 Decriminalised parking enforcement...
  
  
• Disc parking
  Disc parking
  Disc parking is a system of allowing time-restricted free parking through display of a parking disc or clock disc showing the time at which the vehicle was parked. A patrolling parking attendant can inspect the disc to check whether payment is owed...
  
  
• Pay and display
  Pay and display
  Pay and display machines are a subset of ticket machines used for regulating parking in urban areas or in car parks. It relies on a customer purchasing a ticket from a machine and displaying the ticket on the dashboard, or windscreen or passenger window of the vehicle...
  
  
• Pay by phone parking
  Pay by phone parking
  Pay-by-phone parking is a technological innovation which allows any driver parking in a fare required space the option to divert the expense to a credit card via the use of a mobile phone, mobile application or computer, opposed to inserting change or dollar bills into a parking meter or pay and...
  
  
• Parking guidance and information
  Parking guidance and information
  Parking guidance and information systems, or car park guidance systems, present drivers with dynamic information on parking within controlled areas. The systems combine traffic monitoring, communication, processing and variable message sign technologies to provide the service...
  
  
• Parking attendant
  Parking attendant
  A parking enforcement officer or parking attendant and sometimes parking inspector is a member of a traffic control department or agency who issues tickets for parking violations. Where parking meters are used, they may be known as a meter attendant or a traffic warden...
  
  
• Valet parking
  Valet parking
  Valet parking is a parking service offered by some restaurants, stores, and other businesses, particularly in North America. In contrast to "self-parking", where customers find a parking space on their own, customers' vehicles are parked for them by a person called a valet...
  
  
• Parking Wars
  Parking Wars
  Parking Wars is a reality television series which airs on the A&E television network. The program follows traffic enforcement employees as they ticket, "boot," and tow cars as part of their parking enforcement duties....
  
  

People

• Meade McClanahan, sued city of Los Angeles to block installation of parking meters

External links

• Oklahoma City site of first parking meter. (Historic film) - Coin controlled parking meter
• "Parking Meters Yield $50,000 A Year" 1951 article with excellent illustration of coin operated meters
• POM Parking Meters
• The Parking Meter Page
• http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?s_site=wausaudailyherald&f_site=wausaudailyherald&f_sitename=Wausau+Daily+Herald%2FCentral+Wisconsin+Sunday+%28WI%29&p_theme=gannett&p_product=WDHB&p_action=search&p_field_base-0=&p_text_base-0=Parking+meter+theft&Search=Search&p_perpage=10&p_maxdocs=200&p_queryname=700&s_search_type=keyword&p_sort=_rank_%3AD&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date%3AB%2CE&p_text_date-0=Articles from the Wausau Daily Herald]
• Metergate from the SF Times (archived)
• Brink's 1978 parking meter theft
• Saskatoon, SK - the first Canadian City to offer cell phone parking payment option for its parking meters October 21, 2005
• Parking meter payment by cell phone from Slashdot, June 26, 2006
• Voice Of America Video
• New Parking Meter, calls you when time is up - with Pictures
• Sensor based parking meter with push enforcement, bike share, wayfinding, and validation
• Secure Storage Technologies Smart Parking Meter