Denver Replaces P and D with Single Space Meters

I had a number of discussions last week at the California Public Parking Association about the “best” type of parking device for collecting on street revenue. Of course, the answer depended on the booth I was in. P and D folks said P and D was best and had a list of reason, as did P by S, Single Space Meters, Pay by Cell, and the like.

I have my opinion and many of you know it so I won’t belabor the point, however this article caught my eye. Seems the city of Denver is removing P and D machines they installed less than five years ago and spending half a million dollars installing single space meters with credit card capability.

The money quote:

Heather Neuroth said it’s much easier to deal with meters. “You don’t have to trek up the block, pay for your parking space, then walk back to your car and put the receipt on your dashboard, so it works for me,” Neuroth said.

That’s true, but then you don’t get the advantage of removing all those pipes and the like from the sidewalk and having a beautiful, clean street scape. And your meter collection chaps and chapettes have to go meter to meter, whereas with the P and D you go to one meter per block to collect the money.

But you don’t get a receipt out of the meters, but they may be easier to enforce, or they may not. The arguments go on and on.

My guess is that cities make these types of decisions for numerous reasons. I expect that Ms. Neuroth’s comment above a tad down on the list.

Yes, Bobra, it’s coming full circle, just like you said it would.

JVH