Bridgeport Goes Citywide with Parcxmart SmartCard Parking Meters
Bridgeport Mayor John M. Fabrizi announced that all of Bridgeports on-street parking meters will be replaced with Parcxmart-compliant meters.
This announcement follows a pilot program that the City launched in August 2006 to determine the viability of integrating Parcxmart Technologies' parking meters and their local merchant smart card payment system in Bridgeport. Installation of the remaining parking meters will be completed by the end of summer 2007.
We were very pleased with how well the Parcxmart card worked for consumers and with the merchants who were involved, said Fabrizi. The pilot program demonstrated how the Parcxmart payment solution can make parking, commuting, and shopping easier for everyone who lives in and comes to downtown Bridgeport. We see the Parcxmart program in Bridgeport as one more piece of the plan that brings more business activity and economic development to our community.
Bridgeport is the second city in Connecticut, following New Haven, to adopt the Parcxmart payment solution throughout its downtown. Parcxmart Cards are interchangeable between all participating municipalities, which means that consumers may use their Bridgeport or New Haven Parcxmart Cards for parking and for purchasing items in participating stores in both cities. Consumers may load up to $100 onto a Parcxmart Card and use it to pay for parking at participating parking lots, garages, and for retail purchases at participating local merchants.
Parcxmart will be working with Heartland Payment Systems, one of the nations leading suppliers of credit and debit card services, to bring many more Bridgeport retailers and restaurants into the program.
Our goal is to have neighboring cities adopt Parcxmart so that commuters and local travelers can have a convenient alternative to paying for parking, said John Regan, President and CEO of Parcxmart Technologies, an electronic payments company. With Bridgeport and New Haven now going with Parcxmart, there are two major neighboring cities in Connecticut that can take advantage of the Parcxmart payment solution.
When evaluating the benefits of the Parcxmart meters, we saw that the average amount spent in New Haven with a Parcxmart card has been consistently greater than the average coin usage, explained Fabrizi. We believe thats because of the convenience factor. When someone can pay with a card, they will pay a little more because its a way to avoid a ticket if theyre running late. Thats harder to do if you dont have the right change with you. In fact with coins, if you dont have enough, youll probably gamble on getting by without buying enough time but if you lose the gamble, you get a ticket.
We were very pleased with how well the Parcxmart card worked for consumers and with the merchants who were involved, said Fabrizi. The pilot program demonstrated how the Parcxmart payment solution can make parking, commuting, and shopping easier for everyone who lives in and comes to downtown Bridgeport. We see the Parcxmart program in Bridgeport as one more piece of the plan that brings more business activity and economic development to our community.
Bridgeport is the second city in Connecticut, following New Haven, to adopt the Parcxmart payment solution throughout its downtown. Parcxmart Cards are interchangeable between all participating municipalities, which means that consumers may use their Bridgeport or New Haven Parcxmart Cards for parking and for purchasing items in participating stores in both cities. Consumers may load up to $100 onto a Parcxmart Card and use it to pay for parking at participating parking lots, garages, and for retail purchases at participating local merchants.
Parcxmart will be working with Heartland Payment Systems, one of the nations leading suppliers of credit and debit card services, to bring many more Bridgeport retailers and restaurants into the program.
Our goal is to have neighboring cities adopt Parcxmart so that commuters and local travelers can have a convenient alternative to paying for parking, said John Regan, President and CEO of Parcxmart Technologies, an electronic payments company. With Bridgeport and New Haven now going with Parcxmart, there are two major neighboring cities in Connecticut that can take advantage of the Parcxmart payment solution.
When evaluating the benefits of the Parcxmart meters, we saw that the average amount spent in New Haven with a Parcxmart card has been consistently greater than the average coin usage, explained Fabrizi. We believe thats because of the convenience factor. When someone can pay with a card, they will pay a little more because its a way to avoid a ticket if theyre running late. Thats harder to do if you dont have the right change with you. In fact with coins, if you dont have enough, youll probably gamble on getting by without buying enough time but if you lose the gamble, you get a ticket.
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