Old, traditional parking meters in Detroit have been replaced with 175 new multispace meters, covering nearly 1,225 parking spots. This represents one of the largest deployments of parking paystations that accept credit cards in the US.
The new meters are from Duncan Solutions, the largest provider of on-street parking solutions in the US. The company has partnered with payments technology firm Peppercoin to enable the paystations to accept and process credit and debit cards for payments, and to make it possible for drivers to check their parking balances at the meter or online.
Each of the new multispace meters will cover up to 10 parking spaces and it is estimated that Detroit motorists will generate 300,000 credit and debit card transactions in the first year of deployment.
This is a significant win for Peppercoin and Duncan Solutions, the scope of which clearly demonstrates the scalability of the Peppercoin Small Payment Suite, said Mark Friedman, president and CEO of Peppercoin. People want to pay for everyday purchases with their credit or debit card – parking is no different.
Detroit joins several US cities to have benefited from the Duncan/Peppercoin offering. Card-enabled meters have already been installed in Las Vegas and Oklahoma City, while Tybee Island in Georgia is set to implement 37 card-enabled multispace pay stations for public use in early 2007. The two companies are also involved in several large trials in major US cities.
