Council listens to public concerns: Parking meters to get facelift

The Palmerston North City Council has listened to its community’s concerns about the new parking system.

The new parking system, which is a city-wide trial of leading edge parking technology developed by a local firm, has proven to be less user-friendly than anticipated and has resulted in a large number of complaints from the community.

The Council and the developers have identified that problems are occurring when the user’s bay number is not displayed on the screen and the user has to manually enter their bay number using arrow keys. To address this issue and make the system as easy to use as possible, the Council will be installing new key pad screens on the machines which will allow users to enter their bay number directly.

Roading Manager Graeme Tong, says the new keypads will save a significant amount of frustration for users.

“We’re the first city to have this system installed, and there are always bugs to work out when you’re trialling a new system. What we’ve established is that the new system has created problems for people, and we’re confident the addition of the new keypads will make the system very easy to use.”

“With the current system, if you’re unlucky enough to park in bay Z9 and your bay number wasn’t displayed on the screen, you were required to press the buttons 20 times to pay for your parking, with the new keypad, the same bay number will take only three presses.”

“We think this is a great solution that will make the system work as we had hoped, resulting in a system that is easy for all members of the public to use. We’ve been trialling a meter with the new keypad in King Street and the results have been resoundingly positive.”

The new keypads are now in place in 15 meters along Broadway Avenue (between Princess St and the Square) and will be rolling out across the remaining parking meters within six to eight weeks.

A rough pictorial depiction of the difference between the keypad system and the current system is attached below.

Parking meter comparisons.pdf [PDF file 434KB]