Smart Meter

We’ve been telling you about the new smart meters planned for downtown and now the city has begun installing them downtown.

The new smart meters will be able to accept credit cards and eventually will allow drivers to add time and get updates via an app.

The existing meters at the 1,000 spaces downtown are being swapped out with the new smart meters this month. As they are installed they will go live and allow for credit card payments.

Once all of the new smart meters are in, the city will install sensors that will be used to determine if there is a vehicle in the spot. At that point, around the end of January, users will be able to use an app to add time to their meter and get notifications about when their meter time is expiring.

A couple of items worth mentioning:

  1. Once the sensors go live, if a spot is limited to a two-hour time limit, you will not be able to add more than two hours to that meter without the vehicle leaving.
  2. If a meter still has time on it and the vehicle pulls out, the meter will reset to zero.
  3. The city will have the ability to change the meter pricing in the future based on day, time, location or special events. Any changes however would still need to go before City Council. At this point the meters will stay $1/hr Monday through Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

We’ll keep you posted on the progress of the smart meters and the new app.

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  1. Bungalower But what if I put in $1 for an hour.  Then, I wind up leaving after 30 minutes.  Does my credit card get refunded 50¢?

  2. If you charge a $1 for an hour, then pull away after 10 minutes, do you get refunded the unused part of the hour?

  3. I have seen the smart meters done before, but I didn’t know there was such a thing as parking space sensors. That is a surprise.