City to test credit card parking meters this summer

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DAYTON – Dayton plans to install 40 credit-card-swipe parking meters downtown for a 90-day test later this summer, with the possibility of installing them permanently.

Steve Finke, Dayton’s assistant director of public works, said the meters could be installed by late August, on the east side of Main Street between First and Third (75-minute meters), and on the south side of Third Street near Sinclair Community College (2-hour meters).

The meters will accept both coins and credit cards, but will be more expensive. Current 75- and 120-minute meters in Dayton cost 1 cent per minute, while the new meters would cost 2 cents per minute, regardless of whether coins or a card is used.

Finke said the city has to pay a 13-cent per transaction fee to the vendor, IPS Group of San Diego, and $10 per meter per month for the Internet interface.

“I think it will be more convenient for the customers,” Finke said, adding that Cincinnati, Columbus and Indianapolis are testing or installing the meters. “A lot of times you see people digging for change and they can’t find it.”

Finke said the city will ask for feedback, and City Commissioner Nan Whaley last week encouraged any evaluation to involve a coordinated review of the downtown parking plan.

The test meters on Third Street will replace existing meters, but the Main Street meters will create parking in what has been a no-parking area.

Dayton City Manager Tim Riordan said the city eventually will have some combination of credit-card and coin meter systems.

“We need to make some decisions,” Finke said. “Our meters are 10 years old, and we’re having breakdown problems. We have coin chute failures right and left.”