Juneau’s streets as well as city-owned parking garages will be able to use an entirely new system for collecting fees during the coming spring.
In an Public Works and Facilities Committee meeting on Monday, Parks and Recreation Director George Schaaf said the current system is slow for drivers, and labour-intensive for staff.
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”The techniques we are using today would be in a perfect place during the 50s and 1960s If I’m truthful,” he said. “They aren’t keeping up with advances in technology. .”
At present, Juneau residents have to visit City Hall to buy a parking permit. City staff make use of scissors as well as a laminating machine, and rubber stamps in order to create approximately 1,000 parking placards per year.
After that, one must go through the garages for parking to look for placards. Similar procedures apply for parking on the street. Juneau Police Department employees drive on three wheels, in search of illegally parked vehicles.
“They are able to travel around with a clipboard pen, and a piece of paper. They notate the license plate, vehicle’s location and what time it is, and the position of the tire valve stem for every single vehicle that is parked along the streets of downtown Juneau every few minutes,” Schaaf said.
The new system will allow drivers can now purchase permits online and don’t require placards. Cameras will look up license plate numbers when cars exit and enter parking garages.
The police cars with three wheels will also be equipped with cameras. They’ll record the number of license plates along with the GPS location, and the exact location that the valve stem is located while they travel through. Drivers can pay fines or appeals on the internet.
Hourly parking lots accept credit and cash. Schaaf stated that internet connectivity was among the many issues the city had to overcome when it attempted to introduce pay stations to parking spaces on the street in the past decade. However, he added that they’ll be using the same technology that Docks and Harbors uses with its pay stations in the future.
“We’re certain that they’ll perform without difficulty,” he said.
Schaaf expressed his hope that this new technology will prove more simple for users to use and will require less effort to operate.
He also said that the park department is currently working on a public outreach program to inform drivers on how the system is being developed.
