Eau Claire: Buh-Bye Parking Meters, Hello License Scanner

V1 Staff |

There’s no need to dig for spare change anymore when parking in parts of downtown Eau Claire. City crews recently removed about 90 parking meters east of Farwell Street along Dewey and Gray streets and Grand Avenue. The formerly metered spots will now be free, but parkers will be limited to two hours. Leah Ness, city transportation engineer, said the meters were removed in part because they were obsolete (the city isn’t able to find replacement parts for mechanical meters anymore) and in part because they weren’t cost-effective (the revenue they generate doesn’t cover the cost of emptying coins and maintaining the meters). The city hopes to better enforce two-hour parking limits in these areas, as well as in other parts of downtown, with the help of license plate recognition technology. In the spring, a new device that scans license plates will be installed in a community service officer’s patrol car. The technology will be more efficient than the previous low-tech method of marking parked cars’ tires with chalk, Ness said. The parking meter removal was just one recommendation from a comprehensive downtown parking study prepared for the city last year by a Michigan-based consultant. Some downtown parking changes were approved by the City Council in December, including enforcing the two-hour time limit on downtown streets from 6am to 6pm every day of the week. Ness said other recommendations are expected to be phased in, including improving way-finding and parking signs, getting a better processing system for parking tickets, and creating an escalating fine structure for violations. In other words, if you ignore the signs, you might find a use for that spare change after all.