L OCAL LIVING
District
19 DC
DR. GRIDLOCK D.C. now has a buffet of options to feed the meter. But which are best?
DG: She said that the unruly machine warped her card but that the card was still usable.
THINK SMALL ROBERT THOMSON
Travelers across the region seem to have a stake in D.C. street parking. I got many responses to my survey of the street parking systems that the District Department of Transportation is testing. [Commuter page, Aug. 15] In addition to the traditional coin-operated meters and the newer multi-space kiosks that take credit cards, the District is experimenting with systems that allow people to pay by license plate or numbered space or allow payments by phone.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
This writer prefers the multi-space version already in widespread use over the newer systems that are in test phases.
Dear Dr. Gridlock: I drive into the city quite often.
My favorite of the new meters are the ones that take coins (including the dollar coin), cash or credit cards and then print out the paper receipt to put on the dashboard. Very simple, very straightforward. I do not like the meters that require entering the space number; it is sometimes difficult to read the space number on a meter. If the tags on the outside are missing and it is a rainy day, the interior of the meter can fog up completely. Using the plate number is fine.
That is something easy to find and read, and we probably have it memorized. If that helps the District use electronic verification, I am all for that. I do not like the idea of having
to pay exclusively by cellphone or mobile device. It strikes me as just another way to separate the haves and the have-nots. Contrary to popular notions, not everyone has a cellphone and not everyone who has a cellphone has unlimited minutes. How are the people without those devices supposed to be able to pay for parking? What about visitors to the city? Are they closed out completely? Meters that require downloaded applications cater to an even more exclusive group. I believe all meters should accept bills, coins (especially the dollar coin) and credit cards. If the
District wants to add the ability to pay by cellphone or mobile device, I support that move — just not exclusively that. SUSAN BARRON
Arlington County
DG: Rest assured that there’s no place in the city where paying by phone is the only option for street parkers. DDOT says it understands the concern about people without cellphones and doesn’t plan to set up a zone accessible only to parkers with phone access.
Although all the zones offer
alternatives to the pay-by-phone systems, the payment options vary by location. Some have old-style single-space meters that accept coins, and others have multi-space meters that accept various forms of payment.
PHONING IT IN
Dear Dr. Gridlock: I have a slightly different
perspective on the issue of paying for parking via phone because I work night shift until 8 a.m. Most of the week, I take Metro to work. Because of Metro’s delayed Saturday morning openings and long wait times between trains on Saturdays, I drive to work Friday nights. It’s been only recently that the District has begun to charge for parking on Saturdays, too.
Because I get off work at 8, and
because the meters by my office begin at 7 a.m., I always had to leave work to go feed the meter for the last hour of my shift. That is kind of annoying on rainy and snowy days. With the new pay-by-phone, I can call from my desk at work at a little bit before 7 and give myself enough of a pad to get to the car after 8 a.m. And as an added service, Verrus [one of several companies offering the pay-by-phone-system] will text me to give me the option to add more time to my meter if I need it.
But the night I left my cellphone home, I just used the office phone to call Verrus. When I set up the account, they had me set a PIN. Because I was calling from somewhere other than my cellphone, I just had to give them my PIN to access the account and pay for my parking. KARENHAMMOND Ellicott City
CREDIT CRUNCH The green multi-space meters
that allow people to pay by credit card have become a common sight in the District. They’re generally very convenient, but this traveler had an unexpected complication using one on the east side of Ninth Street NW.
Dear Dr. Gridlock: I dropped the kids off at the International Spy Museum this
This letter notes a potential downside to the multi-space system that assigns set spaces to parkers.
Dear Dr. Gridlock: D.C. should not set the size of parking spaces in the “pay-by-space” guidelines. It is a disincentive to smaller cars; at least two Smart Cars can fit into one regular spot.
MARTY SCHERR The District
DG: The other multi-space systems don’t stake out the spaces on the street, so the drivers themselves are determining how many cars will fit in.
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ASHLEY HALSEY/THE WASHINGTON POST
summer and was pleased to find a legal parking space within a block of the museum. This was my first experience with smart meters, and I liked the concept. And then it ate my credit card! I followed the instructions, trying to quickly push my credit card into the machine and then quickly retract it. It went in but wasn’t coming out. I tugged. It didn’t budge. I didn’t want to leave my card in the machine and walk away; what if someone stole it? But I couldn’t get it out. I asked passersby for help — feeling like a shill for “Candid Camera.” No one could extract it. I couldn’t leave to find a police officer. I called the phone number on the meter, thinking of all the tales of woe I’d heard about the D.C. government. Kudos to them from me! I
negotiated the phone system and spoke with a live, very helpful person who said someone would come to help me within 20 minutes. And that’s what happened! A very nice gentleman drove up and had to open the machine to get it to let go of my card. I used another machine, and another credit card, to pay for my parking. I was very pleased by the service I received from the folks who service the smart meters. I’m a bit wary of the meters themselves. SUEMARCUS Fairfax
6
Robert Thomson is The Washington Post’s Dr. Gridlock. He is online Mondays at noon to take all of your transit questions. For up-to-the-minute traffic reports from The Post’s transportation team, go to
www.washingtonpost.com/ drgridlock.
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THE WASHINGTON POST • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2010
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