Time is expiring, Baltimore, for the bubblegum-machine parking meters of old. The deposit-your-coin, twist-for-time machines were first introduced to the city in the 1950s and they now stand sentry over 10,980 individual parking spaces.
But a $4 million plan by Mayor Martin O'Malley's administration, presented last night to the City Council, calls for replacing nearly half of the traditional meters with new, high-tech machines that have been tested for more than a year in Fells Point and along Charles Street downtown.
Unlike the coins-only machines lining most city streets today, the 600 automated meters that would be rolled out over three years - with no rate increases (yet) - will allow parkers to buy time with credit and debit cards in addition to quarters, dimes and nickels.
In May 2004, the city installed 70 of the new meters in Fells Point and along Charles Street, north of the Inner Harbor to Centre Street.
The new meters initially caused some problems in Fells Point when parkers assumed they did not have to pay after the old meters were removed, said Councilman James B. Kraft, who represents the neighborhood. Many people did not notice the new meters.
"They seem to be working out all right," Kraft said. "The biggest problem was that they went in without announcement."
Kraft said he supports the installation of the new machines so long as the administration informs the public that they will be installed throughout the central business district and other neighborhoods.
The parking authority is asking the council for a $4 million appropriation and needs a change in the city charter to permit the use of such technology, which has been used in Europe since the first Bush administration. The idea has only recently caught on in North America - in Toronto; New York; Portland, Ore.; and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., among other places.
Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. said his constituents in downtown also took some time to get used to the new machines, but that people seem to have no problems with them now.
Mitchell said business owners like them because they create more parking spaces.
The benefits of the new machines are many, according to Peter Little, the Baltimore Parking Authority's executive director.
Little told the council yesterday that by eliminating individual designated spaces with the old meters, the new machines permit more cars to squeeze into the same amount of curb space.
