Town now testing ‘touch and display’ parking meters

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Bloomfield Parking Authority has installed seven “touch and display” parking meters on Washington Street for a 90-day pilot program with Municipal Parking Service, of Minneapolis, Minn.

The meters take quarters and credit cards and are activated by touching a screen. If you need help, they will talk you through it— there is a speaker for instructions. There is also a camera lens directed at the person making the payment and ostensibly, anyone walking down the sidewalk. The meters also know when a car has moved into a parking place.

Anne Prince, the BPA operations manager, said a device embedded in the blacktop of the parking space sends out a signal which informs the meter to activate its clock.

A driver is given five minutes of grace to either drive away from the space or pay the meters. If the driver does not pay within that period of grace and is still parked in the space, the meter will automatically issue a parking ticket. There is a camera inside the meter which records the license plate. The seven meters currently installed on Washington Street have not been activated to issue tickets during the pilot period. Prince would not say how the sensor embedded in the street would know a car has pulled into a parking space if the street was covered with snow.

“The meter automatically generates a ticket which is downloaded at the end of the day,” she said. “The ordinances say if you’re occupying a parking space, you have to pay.”

The money made by the meters, either through meter fees or tickets, will be shared between the township and the Municipal Park Service.

“We are guaranteed our draw,” she said, “and a portion above that.”
She said the amount above the draw, or anticipated revenue, has not been determined yet. The meters will also be GPS accessible and instructions are available in English, Spanish and Korean.

“You cannot feed the meters,” Prince said. “They reset only after the car physically leaves the space.”

The meters have a two-hour limit, which is routine in Bloomfield. They will only recognize US quarters and are able to be programmed with TV news and local advertisements and announcements.

“We are excited about his pilot,” Prince said. “Some of the other meters have been here for decades. With the revitalization of the downtown, these are user-friendly, sleek, aesthetically pleasing, and take credit cards.”

Mayor Michael Venezia echoed Prince almost completely.
“The meters, I’m very impressed with them,” he said in a telephone interview. “We had a new downtown but these old, out-dated meters.”

But Venezia said he was “lukewarm’ about the meters having a
camera in them.