‘Sherman Tank’ of Parking Meters Hailed

The city’s new parking meters are winning the war against vandals and thieves. As for their reliability, perhaps the best judge is the 12-year-old girl who inspired a state law after finding that the old meters were inaccurate.

Six months ago, entire blocks featured smashed or beheaded meters, and the posts left behind were often stuffed with trash. In their place are new, virtually impregnable devices tucked inside cast-iron armor.

City officials say the “Sherman tank of parking meters” is also far more accurate than the old clockwork model.

But Ellie Lammer, whose science project on the old, inaccurate meters won her national attention and prompted a state law, isn’t taking the word of officials. She started a new project testing the replacements.

Of the first 10 Duncan-brand meters she tested, all were within six to 10 seconds of the eight minutes they were supposed to give, said Ellie, a seventh-grader.

Ellie’s study of the old meters was inspired by her mother, who put in enough money for an hour and returned within 45 minutes, only to find the meter expired and a ticket on the car.

The girl found that 94% of the 50 meters she checked were more than 20 seconds off, often far more. For two nickels, the old meters gave parking times from less than two minutes to more than 14 minutes.

State Sen. Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco) introduced a law, which goes into effect Friday, giving each county’s sealer of weights and measures the authority to test and warrant the accuracy of city-owned parking meters. Before the law, nobody was accountable for their accuracy.

So far, none of Berkeley’s 2,000 new meters, purchased for about $1.5 million, has been broken open or cut off. Last spring, the city said that nearly two-thirds of its 3,600 parking meters had been stolen or vandalized.