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NEWS

US cities install WiFi-enabled parking meters

From "Wi-Fi Meters," by David Raths, Government Technology, June 2006:

"Hoping to gain efficiencies in police, utility and maintenance efforts, cities from Portland, [Oregon, USA], to Philadelphia are planning wireless networks, which will also offer untethered Internet access to citizens.

"One especially promising area is parking, where the wireless network movement is joining a new generation of high-tech meters to improve data gathering and increase revenue.

" 'We see parking as an important part of the public-service tier of services a Wi-Fi network could improve, along with traffic, maintenance and field inspectors,' said Houston CIO Richard Lewis, adding that this summer, Houston will become the first major US city to manage its parking meters over a wireless network.

"During the past decade, Lewis said, the city's parking-meter systems had not kept pace with growth in the downtown area, which included new sports arenas and a convention center hotel. 'We had all these major investments in downtown, but we didn't have enough parking, and we didn't have parking meters that could take credit cards,' he said. 'So we began to look at systems that took credit cards and had pay-and-display technology.'

"Seven vendors responded to the RFP, which was issued in 2004, said Liliana Rambo, assistant director of the city's Department of Parking Management... The City Council approved a $15 million deal with Affiliated Computer Services in early April 2006 for a network of 1,500 multiple-space meters - 750 of which will be installed this summer - to handle 2,300 downtown parking spaces. The other 750 will be deployed over the next five years. The meters will be attached to a 60-node mesh network built by the city, said Rambo.

"The city's wireless network promises several benefits. First, she said, the city will save money by spending $300,000 to build its own network rather than paying a private vendor $125,000 per year for access to its network. 'Within three years we will have paid less, and we will own the network,' she said.

"Currently the city only becomes aware of broken meters when citizens call to complain. This will change with the wireless network. 'City parking officials will get alarms if there's a problem with a meter, so they're not going to be down as much,' Rambo said. Older meters must be emptied of cash on a set schedule whether they're full or not. With the new system, an alarm will be sent to the back office when meters reach a certain threshold to alert an enforcement officer to empty it.

"The new parking system can also work with handheld devices that alert meter readers when a meter has expired, although Rambo said she hasn't yet chosen that option because she thought it would be taking on too many changes simultaneously...

"Wireless at the Beach

"If Houston becomes the first big US city to experiment with monitoring its parking meters via wireless network, it still may be beaten to the punch by a much smaller Florida city.

"Cocoa Beach, a tourist destination of about 12,800 people on Florida's central east coast, purchased a 6-square-mile mesh network from MeshNetworks and Scientel America Inc., in 2004 for use by its police and public works departments. The city is installing 650 new 'intelligent' parking meters, and has a test zone with 40 of those meters attached to the wireless network, said Charles Holland, the city's assistant finance director. 'We have been led to believe that the network will enable us to monitor meters for repairs in real time,' he said, 'and fix them so we won't have irate citizens complaining that they got a ticket for parking at a broken meter.'

"The sensors can also signal the meters to reset their clocks once a car pulls away from the curb, so a new car can't use time remaining from the previous meter usage..."

"Another issue Cocoa Beach faces is damage to its wireless network during hurricanes, which has already happened twice, including during Hurricane Wilma in 2005. 'That's a downside in this part of the country,' Holland said, but he added that the city keeps finding new uses for its wireless network. 'In a few years, we'll probably be using it in ways we haven't even thought of yet'..."

[Municipal WiFi: 22 September 2006]