Parking meter rates rising, smart meters coming

06:41 PM CDT on Wednesday, July 28, 2004

By Doug Miller / 11 News

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Houston city council gave the Mayor Bill White the green light for the last part of his traffic plan Wednesday. It includes extending parking meter hours to Saturdays, although street parking at night will remain free.

However, the same can't be said for the daytime.

One of the little prices of life in the big city is about to cost a little more.

"Twenty five cents for 10 minutes is already pretty high, if you ask me," said one downtown parker.

But Houston parking meter rates are going up.

Right now, the top price parkers pay at short-term meters is 50 cents for 10 minutes.

But that maximum rate is about to triple to as much as $1.50 every 10 minutes.

And the top price at long-term meters, currently 85 cents an hour, will increase to as much as $1.50 an hour.

Parkers can either pay the price or, perhaps, pay a ticket.

It was no surprise to one driver, "Well, just another way to get in your pocket, I guess. Just like taxes."

"It's principally about regulating the streets and roads so that people don't use the streets we've spent a fortune on, as parking lots and people can move traffic through there," said White.

Meanwhile, a whole new kind of parking meter is about to pop up on the streets of Houston -- parking meters that take your credit card and even let you feed the meter from your cell phone.

David Saperstein, who handles mobility issues for the Mayor explains it like this, "At the same time, the meter can also be programmed to call your cell phone to tell you you have 15 minutes left and ask you if you want to add money."