City to discontinue pay-by-phone at ‘smart’ parking meters
In this screen captured shot of a demonstration video, a woman uses a meter that accepts credit cards, similar to those that will be installed as part of a city pilot project.
Motorists will no longer be able to pay-by-phone when parking at one those newfangled “smart” parking meters that the city set up at street parking stalls in the downtown Honolulu area a little more than more than year ago.
The phone payment feature will be suspended on Sept. 15, the city Department of Transportation Services said today.
The 340 existing smart meters themselves will still be able to accept credit card payments through internal card readers, the department said.
The pay-by-phone function has been plagued by operational issues because it requires significant battery power in order to make cellular data transmission, the department said. New smart meters will be powered by small solar panels, DTS said.
Phone payments have made up less than 1 percent of all smart meter transactions, the department said.
