Opinions of new Downtown parking system? (Houston, Austin: maintenance, live, costs)

[passionatearts]

Has everyone here heard that the city is doing away with parking meters downtown and has converted to a new system?

In case you haven't heard about it, check out this story (http://www.kvue.com/news/newton/stories/111308kvuemeters-bkm.1adb08266.html - broken link).

Today was the first day I parked downtown and paid the new pay station that they have set up. There were two things I wondered:

1) If the city's goal is go "green" (the pay stations are solar-powered), how do they intend to accomplish that if you have to print a parking sticker (to stick on your windshield) that indicates when your time expires? Won't this just generate a lot of paper waste?

2) Is parking still free after 5:30 PM on weekdays and all day on weekends and holidays?

Any thoughts?

[atxcio]

They've had these kinds of meters in Houston for a long time. I like them, because you don't need to have change. I don't typically carry change, and what little I have in the car usually wouldn't get me much time.. It's also really nice not having to worry about pulling into a space with a broken meter.

I'm sure they also cut down big-time on the maintenance and administration costs for the city... don't have to have city workers drive up and down the street emptying the machines all the time. That probably cuts down on some pollution (but probably also a job or two!).

The paper thing, yeah, I don't understand how they can call that "green"... it does seem like a waste. They should let you optionally pick up a card, that you could just stick in the meter and get stamped for the current time. You could re-use it many times.

[twange]

I believe the investment was much more initially but will end up saving the city money in maintenance over the course of the meters lives.

Here's a good link about Austin and parking:

Austin Contrarian: Overparked

There are a few more links about parking on this blog if you look around.

[FromCalitoSteinerRanch]

Originally Posted by passionatearts

2) Is parking still free after 5:30 PM on weekdays and all day on weekends and holidays?

Any thoughts?

Yes, we parked this weekend and it was part of the info sticker on the particular dispenser close to our spot.