Ocean City Testing Parking Meters That Accept Credit Cards

Ocean City began an experiment earlier this week with parking meters that accept credit cards.

The test includes 12 parking meters on the 800 block of Asbury Avenue and 57 meters on Ocean Avenue between 11th and 13th streets, and the program will run until the meters are inactivated in the fall.

Finding a parking spot in Ocean City on a busy summer day — particularly on streets near the beach and boardwalk such as Ocean Avenue — has always been a good news-bad news proposition. Good news to finally find a place to park. Bad news to discover that you have to come up with a quarter for every 15 minutes you want to park.

At City Council meetings in the spring where parking meter fee increases were considered, Councilman Keith Hartzell said the biggest complaint he’s heard is that someone who wants to spend four hours on the beach or boardwalk can’t find 16 quarters to put in the meter.

He said they're not as mad about the cost as about finding the coins to pay for it.

Parking meters that accept credit cards solve the problem.

But the city wants to see how well they work, how well they withstand a saltwater environment and how well they are received by the public before it considers investing in the new technology on a large scale. The city is planning to solicit feedback through its website or by email, according to Communications Director Laurie Howey.

While a more streamlined process for feedback is still being set up, the public can visit www.ocnj.us and click on "Contact Us" under the “How Do I” tab, Howey said. She said the public also can contact Ocean City Finance Director Frank Donato at 609-399-6111.

The new parking meter heads were installed cost-free by a San Diego company that wants to break into the East Coast market, according to Donato. The IPS Group is charging Ocean City only for the Internet gateway fees required to process the credit cards during the one-season pilot program, Donato said.

If Ocean City decides to use the same technology next year, it will have to purchase or lease the equipment, he said.

The parking meter caps are solar-powered and communicate wirelessly (through cell-phone carriers) to a back-end system that reports in real-time on revenue, low battery power and other equipment problems. Credit-card payments are accepted at each parking meter (some systems require drivers to pay at nearby kiosks).

Donato said he believes Ocean City is the first shore community in New Jersey to experiment with this type of technology.

The bulk of the new meters are on Ocean Avenue, where the parking rates are higher, but Donato said the also wanted to test some downtown (where the fees are 25 cents per hour).