New Card & Coin Meters Net Nearly a Quarter Million in One Month

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist

Looks like Angelenos will be seeing more of those Card & Coin meters in Los Angeles. City officials announced this morning that the approximately 10,000 recently installed meters netted $230,000 in September. That's a huge boost from expectations, they said, which would probably generate $83,000 to $125,000 a month (that translates to $1 million to $1.5 million).

“Since we installed the first of these new meters in May, they immediately began earning their keep in the City of Los Angeles,” said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Los Angeles has approximately 40,000 meters, but the 10,000 card and coin ones are generating 50% of the city's parking revenue. [Added: many of the older meters are broken, allowing vehicles to park for free.]

The meters are supposed to be in working condition 99% of the time. That other 1% of the time should, in theory, automatically and wirelessly notify headquarters to send out a repair person. If the meter is found to be broken and won't accept both card and coin, the city's new policy sends you to find a new parking spot or face a ticket.

Villaraigosa is also touting the environmentally-friendly aspect of the new meters, including the fact that L.A. now has the most solar-powered meters in the country. The old-school meters use AA batteries, meaning frequent replacement and more hazardous waste (remember, it is illegal for you to throw household batteries into the regular trash).

Villaraigosa called it a "win-win," Considering the revenue, that's for sure.

For the Record: An earlier version of this post indicated that when paying by credit card, you cannot increase or decrease payment by a nickel's worth of time. That appears to be wrong, though, it seems that some meters in our experience don't have this option.]

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By Zach Behrens in News on October 14, 2010 10:45 AM

Comments [rss]

rjhemedes

I hate paying for parking but when I do, I grudgingly admit I prefer the new parking meters over the old ones.

paul

"with coins you can control how much you spend with nickels and dimes rather than quarters, but when paying by credit card, you can't make those nuances"

Not even by pressing the clearly marked "more" or "less" buttons before you pay?

Zach Behrens

Paul,

My comment was based on my experience with a block in Studio City that I frequent. When I press those "clearly marked 'more' or less' buttons," it only does it in large increments, about a quarter's worth and doesn't let you pay a nickel or dime's worth. Your challenge prompted me to head out to a block here in Sherman Oaks and test out the meters and I discovered everything is a-okay, the buttons allow you to increase or decrease your payment by a nickel.

I've made some adjustments above.

Black Jesus

these people can't be this dumb. They placed these meters in high traffic areas, of course they are going then show a disproportionate amount of the total taken. Why didn't they put them in areas where there is less traffic and see what happens?

In the end some applause, the city found way to tax people more efficiently. Good for them. The meters need to display what the cost of the tax to park is, in some of them I've seen the don't, making them illegal taxing devices.

GarySe7en

It's a user fee not a tax. Maintaining streets, providing the land use (the more high demand the parking, usually the more valuable the land), maintaining the meters, policing the parking, that all costs money. Most cities heavily subsidize their parking relative to the associated transportation costs of housing all our cars, and the revenue generated mostly goes back into paying for all those costs.

Parking meters are more like toll roads. You are paying for the use by duration, and compensating the city's expenses for that use. If all citizens of Los Angeles, regardless of whether they drove or not, had to pay to compensate for city parking expenses, that would be a taxation. And since parking revenue is typically less than the actual worth and costs associated with city parking expenses, parking is already partially subsidized out of our general fund taxes. If we did not have the user fees, it would have to be even more subsidized, and even more regressive in taxation.

In other words, quit whining about paying for public parking, unless you would prefer the city sell off it's parking to private companies, who I am sure would gladly charge market rates, which would most certainly be higher than fees are currently in many popular destinations.

noho

I have a gripe about these meters. I parked on 3rd Street at a meter with 22 minutes remaining. I attempted to increase the time with both coin and card and it took my coin, not giving me any additional time. And rejected my card.

So what are you supposed to do when someone leaves you time, but not enough? Surely there must be a way to max it out again.