City won’t give up on ‘smart’ meters

Noaki Schwartz

NEWPORT BEACH -- Despite complaints by parking control officers, store

owners and tourists, the city will continue its 90-day trial of the

“smart” parking meters.

“They seem to be working as they were designed,” said traffic engineer

Rich Edmonston. “I’m undecided, personally.”

It appears, however, that most people have formed fairly strong opinions

against the new, futuristic meters that were installed on Balboa

Boulevard, near Newport Pier and between Palm and Main streets.

“They are a major inconvenience,” said Gail Lynch, owner of the popular

beachfront bar, Mutt Lynch’s. “What I can’t understand is why they would

put them here where people come to spend the day and only allow them to

be here an hour.”

That, however, is precisely the reason for the new meters -- to

discourage beachgoers from parking in metered spaces all day, instead of

spending money on neighborhood businesses.

The meters sense when drivers feed the meter beyond its one-hour limit

and resets to zero when a car leaves the spot with time remaining.

The problem is, store owners are upset that their customers don’t have

more time to shop. And tourists don’t understand how the newfangled

meters work.

The meters made a disastrous debut on Memorial Day weekend. At the time,

parking control officer Nickol Frantzich said they were “awful.”

Motorists became irate when the meters swallowed their money, when they

found $34 parking tickets on their windshields, and when they couldn’t

back out of their spots to reset the meters because of traffic

congestion.

Edmonston, however, hopes to end some of the confusion about how the

meters operate by rewriting the directions on the meters. Many

non-English-speaking beachgoers had trouble with the word “vacate,”

Frantzich said.

Even with the changes, many store and restaurant owners still say the

meters need to go.

“A lot of people over the weekend have gotten tickets,” said Nikki Saros,

manager of Rockin’ Baja Lobster. “They kept putting quarters in the

meters -- I just don’t think it’s clear to them.”