Lynn said he was not aware of any other U.S. city that employs single-space parking meters with credit card-reading capabilities. Individual E-Purse meters, which use technology similar to the West Hollywood and Beverly Hills meters, exist in some Asian nations.
Several California cities, including Sacramento and San Francisco, have installed multiple-space parking meters with coin and credit card slots. The Beverly Hills and West Hollywood partnership, however, opted for single space meters because drivers are more comfortable with that model, Lynn said.
"There were some technical reasons as well, but the single space meters offer familiarity," Lynn said. "They allow us to use our current infrastructure."
Using the poles and housings of the original meters on North Canon and La Brea, technicians installed the new card-reading technology in the existing meter frames.
The exact cost of the implementation is unclear because the meters are only test models, Lynn said. But officials from both cities said the new meters cost about the same as traditional meters. Although officials do not expect parking collections to jump, Lynn said the credit card function of the new meters could help slash the cities' parking expenses if the meter project expands.
"If we have a high level of credit card use, simply because it's a non-cash system, it reduces the back-end labor needed to maintain the parking meters, bag the coins, collect them, etcetera," Lynn said.
The testing phase is slated to last about a month in West Hollywood. But the West Hollywood Parking Division may cut the pilot program short and start installing more credit card accessible meters, depending on drivers' satisfaction with them.
"Our staff is keeping a close eye on the meters, frequenting those areas and seeing if consumers are having a hard time with the meters or if they're catching on," White said. "We're playing it by ear."
In Beverly Hills, the trial meters will remain for six months, after which the City Council will decide whether to keep the meters and possibly order more, Lynn said.
The Parking Division has launched other parking innovations in recent years, allowing drivers to use cellphones or credit cards to buy or add time to meters. Another program uses a debit or pre-paid cash key that can be inserted into certain parking meters. At the moment, however, White said the department has no other modernization projects lined up.
"We're always trying to find something new and cutting-edge, but we don't have anything else in mind now," she said.
tiffany.hsu@latimes.com
