Parking Meters Begin to Change

You’ve packed the sun block and beach towels for your Labor Day weekend excursion. But did you remember to get a roll of quarters?

A generous supply of coins, and a good watch, are sometimes vital to spending a day at one of Southern California’s beaches, where the parking meters are notoriously expensive and tightly timed, and where parking lot attendants extract $5 or more from long lines of cars idling at an entrance.

But now, thanks to improving technology, seaside parking soon may be getting almost as user-friendly as it is scarce on summer’s last big weekend.

From Santa Monica to Oceanside, beach cities are using automated pay systems aimed at making parking--and, of course, collections and enforcement--easier, while balancing the often conflicting needs of swimmers, surfers, merchants and residents.

The latest generation of parking meters and automated pay boxes beginning to appear at beach parking lots and along seaside streets can accept bills and credit cards, make change, allow for greater flexibility in parking times and guard against fraud. Many run on solar power. Their manufacturers say they hold up well against the ravages of sand, salt air and vandals and, should trouble strike, can signal a malfunction to human monitors many miles away. They can even, in theory at least, force a parking space hog to move on when time is up.

Sliding dollar bills into one of the new machines at Dockweiler Beach near Los Angeles International Airport last week, surfer Mike Patterson was pleased not to have to come up with quarters.

“This is pretty easy. I’ll take this deal any time,” the West Los Angeles resident said as the device quickly spit out an all-day parking receipt for him to put on his dashboard.

Not everybody is thrilled, however. Newport Beach recently dumped its “smart meters” after deciding they weren’t worth the hassle. Manhattan Beach has decided to switch to a different brand of device at its downtown pier lot after frequent malfunctions of its current automated pay machines.

Nonetheless, high-tech parking devices are the wave of the future at most beaches, parking officials agree. Though the devices also are increasingly being used at parks, campgrounds, downtown lots and other places, they are especially attractive to those who oversee that especially scarce commodity: room to park at the region’s crowded beaches.

“As people get used to them, they are going to be increasingly popular,” said Bill Francis of Elgin, Ill.-based Walker Parking Consultants.

New Technology Has Advantages, Drawbacks

The devices have long been used, with wide public acceptance, throughout Europe and in Canada, Francis said, and the technology is rapidly improving. The main stumbling block here is their unfamiliarity.

The two main types of automated pay-box systems replace the familiar sea of parking meters with a handful of machines that can serve many spaces, thus reducing visual blight. But they require people to walk to a central location within a lot to pay and follow instructions printed on the devices. For one type, commonly known as “pay by space,” patrons must note their parking slot number and enter it into the machine. The other type, usually called “pay and display,” requires a user to obtain a receipt from the machine and take it back to the vehicle’s dashboard. Each system has its advantages and drawbacks, and each takes some getting used to.

“We’ve all grown up with parking meters, and we all know what they do and how to use them; for most people, these are something new,” said Francis, whose clients include the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors.

This summer, the department became the latest local government agency to dip a cautious toe into the parking technology waters. It is trying out different automated pay boxes and parking meters at two of the beaches its oversees--El Segundo and Dockweiler in the South Bay--and has installed solar-powered, multi-space parking meters at a small lot at 62nd Avenue in Playa del Rey, next to Ballona Creek and the Marina del Rey boat channel.

Under the long-standing county system, parking attendants collect fees, ranging from $5 to $6.75 per day, from beach patrons as they enter a lot. Everybody arriving once an attendant is on duty pays the full day’s rate, no matter how brief the visit. When a lot is not staffed--say early in the morning or in the winter--patrons are expected to put their cash in antiquated “honor drop boxes,” which are often ignored, pilfered from, or both.

County beach officials hope the new systems will improve collections when lots are unattended, thus providing more funds for beach maintenance and improvements, while adding some conveniences for drivers.

The new systems’ trial period began in early July with devices from three competing companies and runs through this month. They will be evaluated in October. But officials said they already are getting positive feedback: About one-third of the beachgoers using the new machines are paying with credit cards. The parking meters--25 cents for 15 minutes, with a 90-minute limit in two of the three lots--are getting cheers from many people, ranging from surfers to workers on a lunch break who chafe at paying the all-day rate for a short stay.

At Dockweiler’s Hyperion parking lot, where the county has strategically positioned five meters near its newly built burger and snack bar, Nancy Cain is happy to bring coins to finance her regular, one-hour-or-so walks on the beach.

“I love to come down here, but I wasn’t happy to pay $5 for such a short time,” Cain said as she prepared to look for shells one recent morning. “I once asked the attendant if I couldn’t just pay half price, but he said no. Now I don’t feel like I’m wasting my money to walk on the beach or bring my grandchildren down for a little while.”

Just down the road, at the Grand Avenue lot in El Segundo, the automated machines, originally set for a “pay by space” all-day system, confused and angered beachgoers who forgot their space numbers or punched in the wrong number, said parking attendant Tony Duong. After the vendor reset the machines to “pay and display,” allowing people to pick any space and put a receipt on the dashboard, things improved.

“Now people like it--no complaints,” said Duong, who finds that first-time users of the machines often ask for his help.

And the metered spaces are a bigger hit.

“All right!” declared plastering contractor Danny Gamboa, spotting the new meters as he wheeled into the Grand Avenue lot for a midday work break. “This is a big plus!”

But for some longtime regulars, who remember when parking at this beach was free, the new machines and meters are just as irritating as having to pay an attendant.

Surfer James Bottieri, who grew up in El Segundo, called the county’s pay system “a rip-off.”

“This is a pretty sorry place--the parking lot is dirty, there’s no snack bar, and just these nasty things for restrooms,” he said, gesturing at the four weather-beaten portable toilets perched by the new meters. “They should make some improvements before they charge people to park here, and a lot of people feel that way.”

In San Diego County, the city of Oceanside began using automated pay systems several years ago and upgraded them several times as the technology improved.

“People needed to get used to them, but [the machines] really are a good deal for patrons,” said Bryan Forward, Oceanside’s parking enforcement supervisor. He said the city’s machines allow people to decide how long they want to stay and let them pay by coin, bill or credit card. And the city has found the machines to be very durable and cost-effective.

Newport Beach’s yearlong experiment with cutting-edge parking technology did not work out so well, however. Trying to address complaints from merchants that all-day beachgoers were keeping parking-strapped customers away from their shops and restaurants, the city installed about 50 “smart meters.”

Each meter was hooked to sensors embedded in its parking space. The sensors would tell the meter when a car had been parked for the two-hour limit, and the meter would refuse any more coins. But drivers either got angry and frustrated--or figured out how to beat the system by pulling out of the space then moving back in once the meter had reset itself.

“It looked like an innovative policy. We thought we were helping merchants by ending all-day beach parking,” said Rich Edmonston, the city’s traffic engineer. “But we had a lot of problems and the meters didn’t end up doing what we’d hoped they’d do.”

Newport Beach Returns to Traditional Meters

When some merchants decided they really didn’t care that much because some of their customers were the all-day beachgoers, Edmonston said, the city removed the last of the high-tech meters a few weeks ago and went back to regular meters.

Officials of InnovaPark, the Connecticut-based firm that developed the sensor-meter system and shouldered the cost of the Newport Beach experiment, said they are not discouraged.

Kirby Andrews, InnovaPark’s owner, said the company’s sophisticated meters can provide data to help local officials decide how to make parking rules that are fair and responsive to competing needs of visitors, merchants and residents.

“Unfortunately, all the technology in the world isn’t going to solve the demand issue; it isn’t going to produce more land at the beach,” Andrews said. “But technology can help make the system fairer by giving government officials a better handle on who uses the parking and why. It sounds corny, but technology can help make parking more democratic.”