Aldermen OK $1.1 Million For Credit-Card Reading Meters

The days of carrying change will soon be over in Evanston, where the city plans to replace all parking meters with new, credit-card reading meters and pay stations.  

Aldermen voted unanimously Monday to approve a $1.09 million contract with Milwaukee-based Duncan Solutions, which will install new meters and pay stations throughout the city.

“Our meters are at least 30 years old,” said Ald. Melissa Wynne (3rd Ward), who is chair of the city’s parking and transportation committee. “Our parking meters have reached the end, the absolute end of their life.”

According to Wynne, the committee has been studying parking meter options for the past five to six years, and has seen tremendous improvements in technology. The city has also tested credit card reading meters on a stretch of Sherman Avenue downtown, as well as pay and display stations (where users must return to their car to display a ticket) at Clark Street and Chicago Avenue. 

“This is all new parking meters and some pay boxes—where they’re appropriate and suggested by the community,” Wynne said. 

According to assistant city manager Marty Lyons, the city will now begin a public engagement process to seek input on what type of meters the city should put in different locations. Options include meters at every space, pay and display stations or a “pay by space” setup. In pay by space, users pay at a pay box after leaving their car, for a specific numbered space—a system currently in effect at the Evanston Public Library downtown.

Lyons said residents will be able to test out different types of meters, look at pictures of the options online and will have multiple opportunities to share their opinion.

Ald. Ann Rainey (8th Ward) said she was categorically opposed to pay and display stations, which she described as “horrible,” particularly in bad weather, for the elderly, or for people with children in their cars.

“They’re inconvenient and they’re terrible,” she said. “It just seems archaic.” 

But Ald. Judy Fiske (1st Ward) said the pay and display system at Clark and Chicago was a good solution for that specific area, where the sidewalk was narrowed, traffic signals were moved onto the sidewalk and bikes locked to parking meters often clogged the walkway.  The pay stations have freed up sidewalk space and solved the problem with bikes, she said. 

“Pay and display can be very unwieldy, but in some instances it’s worked out very well, she said.” 

Wynne stressed that the city plans to install pay and display stations only in locations where it makes sense, based on citizen comments.

“We ran a pilot program for a pay and display on Main Street and it failed utterly, and we removed it,” she said. “That’s the whole point…there’s no intention of putting pay and display everywhere as Chicago has done.”

The city has already installed some single-space meters from Duncan Solutions in the 900 block of Chicago Avenue, which have performed without issues due to weather, according to city officials. The contract calls for 1,225 single-space meters and 44 pay stations, although that number may change based on public engagement.