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The City of Wilmington has begun to replace its parking meters with touchscreen kiosks.
The project will occur in phases. Phase One started Tuesday with five new kiosks installed in the Riverfront District, which has had several parking kiosks in place in recent years.
The next phase, set to begin the first week of January, will involve the deployment of new kiosks at 44 locations in downtown. Once the kiosks are installed, the city will remove the old meter heads and, eventually, the poles. As the kiosks are activated, meters on that block will display a yellow sign reminding motorists to pay at the kiosk.
The new parking payment machines are being installed by Flowbird, the vendor with whom the City has a $604,000 contract for the purchase and installation of the kiosks as well as technical support. The new kiosks will accept coins, credit cards, or payments through the Park Mobile app. Motorists can also pay by text.
Flowbird has provided a generic instructional video, which can be viewed here.
The meters have been a source of controversy with motorists citing maintenance problems that led to tickets even when the machines weren’t working. Parking meters are disappearing around the country in favor of kiosks that can accept various forms of payment.
“It’s been a good week thus far for our ongoing parking enforcement reform efforts,” said Mayor Mike Purzycki. “We’ve lowered cost of a parking ticket to $25 beginning January 1 for those who pay the ticket within 14-days of issuance, and we are introducing a much simpler way to pay for parking using kiosks with additional convenient payment options. Our goal is to support our local businesses and residents by making sure parking is available and less of a hassle.”