City of Richmond, Va., to Expand Multi-Space Parking Meter Pilot Program

Today, Digital Payment Technologies (DPT), a leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of multi-space parking pay stations, announced the city of Richmond, Va., is adding 21 LUKE II multi-space parking pay stations to its initial 10-pay station trial deployment.

The city also has plans to upgrade the pay stations’ mode of operation, from Pay-and-Display (PND) to Pay-by-License Plate (PBL), and also plans to implement consumer convenience features such as Pay-by-Phone and Extend-by-Phone options. Standard Parking is handling the installation and management of the pay stations.

In the early 2000s, the city opened up 2,200 new free parking spaces that were previously paid spaces, and kept just 800 paid spaces using single-head parking meters in the central business district. When urban residential and business activity began to pick up again in 2005, the lack of available parking caused the city to reevaluate its parking needs, and led to an increase of 300 additional single-space meters.

While the meters solved some of the city’s turnover and availability issues, it was not a long-term solution, due to the city’s plans of implementing advanced parking technologies. In May of 2012, Richmond began the process of replacing the single-space meters with multi-space parking pay stations, starting with a 10-pay station pilot program around city hall, downtown and in the main business district.

“We believe a multi-space parking approach will be a better long-term solution for our city, as it will allow us to implement high-tech features such as Pay-by-License Plate and Extend-by-Phone to offer more convenient services for the public,” said Steven Bergin, parking program management analyst with the city of Richmond. “So far the pilot program has been well-received. In addition to reducing sidewalk clutter, our citizens especially appreciate the multiple payment options."

In a Pay-by-License Plate mode of operation, consumers enter their license plate number at any pay station while paying for a parking session. This eliminates the need to remember a space number or return to the vehicle to display a receipt.

When Extend-by-Phone is deployed, consumers who paid with a credit card can opt to receive a text message when their parking session is about to expire, asking if they’d like to extend the session, and by how much time. They then simply respond to the text with the amount of time to add, as long as they comply with the city’s hourly time restriction. Their payment is automatically charged to the card they used to make the initial purchase at the pay station.

“We are pleased that Richmond has selected our LUKE II multi-space pay stations as the foundation of its long-term parking strategy,” said David Hoyt, regional sales manager at DPT. “The flexibility of the pay stations provides cities like Richmond the ability to add new features and capabilities to their parking system that benefit both the citizens and the city without having to replace the hardware."

For more information or sales inquiries on DPT, please call 1-888-687-6822 or visit http://www.digitalpaytech.com. Images for the LUKE II pay station can be found at http://www.digitalpaytech.com/news-and-events/press-kit.aspx

About Digital Payment Technologies

Digital Payment Technologies (DPT) is an innovative leader in the design, manufacture, and distribution of electronic pay stations, management software, and online services for the parking industry. DPT products provide complete financial tracking, control, and reporting on parking revenue collected by cities, municipalities, universities, parking management companies, private operators, and national parks, from customer payment through to bank deposit.