New parking meters previewed downtown

06:39 PM CDT on Thursday, May 12, 2005

By Doug Miller / 11 News

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HOUSTON -- City officials are overhauling the entire parking operation downtown, which includes installing new, consumer-friendly parking meters.

KHOU-TV

For the past six weeks, the city has been trying out meters from seven different companies.

So for the past six weeks, the city has been trying out meters from seven different companies.

Manuel Gonzales was perplexed. "I'm trying to figure out how it works," he said. Before him, stood a new fangled parking meter, the likes of which he'd never seen. "I don't even know where my parking space is."

Gonzales was accustomed to the meters, like one around the corner with numbered spaces.

So was Michael Davis. "There's no space number or anything. Oh, you've got to put it on your dashboard," he said.

There are seven meters on seven blocks made by seven different companies.

For the past six weeks, the City of Houston has had them out for a test drive, of sorts.

"We're revamping the whole entire parking operation," said Liliana Rambo, Houston Parking Department. "We're becoming much, much more customer service friendly."

When Tyesha Elam saw no numbers and no spaces, she "thought it was free."

No. They're not that friendly.

Most do accept credit cards and bills and they do the math for you, telling you exactly when your meter expires. But they're not without flaws.

Let's say you come out to check on your meter and you've got 12 minutes left. So you put in 30 minutes. Now you have 42. Apparently, that's something you can't do with the new meters. You can't add time.

Next Monday, the old meters will return briefly, which will make Manuel Gonzales happy.

"It was easier the other way," Gonzales said.

City officials hope to have the new meters installed by this fall.