City To Install Wireless Pay Stations

Waimanalo resident Noi Poouahi fed the parking meter at Honolulu Zoo
before he and his brothers, girlfriend and kids went to Waikiki Beach
just before sundown.

The city plans to take out the meters and
replace them with 10 wireless pay stations where people can pay by
cash, credit card and even charge parking through their cell phones.

"It will be better, I don't need walk back from the beach to over here, that's one far walk," said Poouahi.

"[It's] a lot easier than carrying a whole bunch of quarters in your pocket," City Enterprise Services Director Sidney Quintal.

Quintal heads the enterprise services department that oversees the Honolulu Zoo.

"In
this method now, you can just plug in your credit card, you can just
plug in the time you want, and away you go," Quintal said.

People
who park at the zoo will no longer be able to benefit from seeing an
open meter like this with 51 minutes remaining and park there to save
money because the stalls will be numbered and meters will be gone.

"I
wouldn't be able to do that at all. I kind of like this system better,
I guess because I can score on other people's parking if they have
time left on their meter. I can score on that. I don't have to really
pay for anything," said Kaneohe resident Juno Chung.

Others are
afraid the new technology will mean the parking lot, which is already
used by tourists staying in hotels nearby will be further clogged by
long-term parkers, making it harder for zoo patrons to find a spot.

"It
should be limited and people should literally have to come here to pay,
and not do it via cell phone and so on," said Waikiki resident
Elizabeth Knoke.

The city plans to offer zoo patrons a partial
refund -- perhaps 25 percent of their parking fees -- when they enter
the zoo and the city will spend $800,000 repaving the parking lot,
putting in new irrigation and landscaping there.