CLEVELAND — On Oct. 6, the city of Cleveland announced it will be transitioning to smart parking meters, something that many cities across the country have already done. This will entail installing parking kiosks and a mobile payment platform. 

 

What You Need To Know

  • Cleveland announced it is implementing smart parking meters

  • Columbus did this in May and it has been a success  

  • There will be kiosks and a mobile payment platform 
​

One of those cities that has already implemented this is Columbus.

Amanda Ford, the Acting Administrator of the Division of Parking Services for Columbus, explained how the transition went. She said it was beneficial for the city.

“It’s so easy now for folks that we’ve had a lot of positive comments,” she said.

Although it has been easier for people to park, it was not as easy to implement the new kiosks and meters. Ford said it took the city two and a half weeks to install the new meters. 

“We had a very set plan, you had to install 16 to 20 kiosks per day. We installed about 143, 145 in that two and a half week period and removed nearly 3,000 single space meters,” she said.

Ford said the new meters are more efficient for the city because of additonal payment options. 

“It gives more payment options. You know, you can still insert coins, you can use credit card, there’s EMV options, plus you have the mobile payment app,” she said. 

If someone does not have a smartphone or a credit card, they can still use coins to pay at the kiosk. Although, Ford said that more than 50% of the revenue comes from people paying for parking on the Park Columbus app.

“The app provides an in-app experience, you can check out as a guest if you’re not comfortable creating accounts in the Park Columbus app, there’s text to pay, you can pay over the phone. So we have so many more payment options and just more, far more efficient and more reliable system now because of this,” she said.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb released a statement about the announcement and what it will do for the city.

“Modernizing our city’s on-street parking system will make the public’s experience much more customer-friendly and convenient,” he said.

Bibb said he believes this will be more efficient for the city.

“This is a big upgrade that makes payments easy, allows us to see parking trends, analyze data and improve efficiency,” he said.

Cleveland plans to begin the transition to smart parking meters in summer 2023.