Birmingham Upgrades Parking Meters, Adds Vehicle Detection Sensors

(Crystal A. Proxmire, July 9, 2017)

Birmingham, MI – Visitors to Downtown Birmingham may notice the new parking meters, which take coins, credit cards and pay by phone through Parkmobile.

According to the City of Birmingham website:

“The installation of 1,262 credit card enabled “smart” parking meters has begun! All parking meters located in the City of Birmingham will offer payment by credit card as an option upon completion of the installation of the new parking meters. The existing parking meter housing and poles will remain intact. The existing coin only parking meter mechanisms will be replaced with the new “smart” meters and vehicle detection sensors will be installed at every meter space.

If you are a traditionalist and wish to continue to pay with coins – fear not! The new parking meters will still have a coin slot for payment using nickels, dimes or quarters!

If you are “tech savvy” and excited about the ability to pay by credit card – then you will be thrilled to learn that the City of Birmingham will be absorbing the processing costs associated with use of credit cards. That’s right! Parking rates will be the same regardless of payment type – coin or credit card. The new meters will accept Visa, MasterCard, and Discover.

“Prefer to pay using Parkmobile? Another great option! The new Liberty meters will reflect Parkmobile payments ON THE METER and on your mobile phone.

Also, the new vehicle detection sensors will allow parking patrons to utilize mobile phones, computers or vehicle apps to locate convenient parking close to Birmingham destinations for business, shopping, dining or recreation.

Parking enforcement personnel, police department staff and CivicSmart representatives will be available to assist parking patrons and the public regarding use of the new equipment.”

According to the CivicSmart website “When combined with our credit-card enabled Liberty™ meters, our wireless vehicle detection sensors provide real-time data with 99.7% accuracy, allowing cities to detect vehicle occupancy in a specific space, reveal parking patterns, trends, and high demand areas, and guide Parking Enforcement Officers directly to vehicles in violation.”

The City also recently unveiled their “parking widget” and “parking app” that lets visitors know how many spaces are available in each parking deck.  Read more about that at http://oaklandcounty115.com/2017/05/24/birminghams-new-widget-shows-real-time-parking-availability/

Parking discussions happen in several communities. Learn from other community challenges by checking out other parking related stories HERE.