Spokane parking meters to accept plastic

After several exploratory studies over the past decade, Spokane plans to roll out parking meters that will accept credit card payments as well as coins at 800 parking spaces downtown. The City Council is expected to review a contract with Milwaukee-based Duncan Solutions for the new meters later this month.

The Downtown Spokane Partnership, which represents the interests of downtown businesses, has worked with the city on plans to improve the convenience of downtown parking. The group’s president, Mark Richard, said new meters will do just that.

Plans to update downtown meters have hit snags in the past. The city originally contracted with a French company named Parkeon in 2011 to install a handful of multispace kiosks requiring drivers to walk up the block to pay for their parking. Those units didn’t test well, Richard said.

“Part of the challenge was you’d have to traipse halfway down the block and climb into a snow bank to pay for your parking,” Richard said.

Single-space units proved more popular. Duncan won a bidding war to supply Spokane with new meters, releasing a model that will cost the city $800 for each machine, making the total cost around $640,000, according to the city. Duncan provides parking services for Atlanta and Houston, among other cities.

The installation will occur in two phases. Parking crews have already removed about 100 credit card meters from downtown streets and will replace them with Duncan machines in the next few weeks. In September, another 700 meters will be installed in the core of downtown, an area roughly bounded by Spokane Falls Boulevard, First Avenue and Monroe and Washington streets.

The city also hopes to lower the transaction fee charged for paying with a card, spokeswoman Julie Happy said. The city charges 30 cents now but hopes to reduce that figure to around 10 cents in the near future.

Richard said the new meters represent a first step in improving the parking experience in downtown. In November, the city rebranded its parking enforcement department to include conflict resolution training and hospitality services. Sensors embedded in the new meters will be able to detect vehicles, allowing the city to collect information on traffic volume and potentially develop an app that would direct drivers to vacant spots.

Some changes, including allowing drivers to receive alerts on their phones when their meter has almost expired and pay for 30-minute extensions, would require cooperation from the city, Richard said. An ordinance prohibits drivers from plugging meters beyond posted time limits.

The Marines have tried curfews, drinking restrictions and plain old jawboning to cut down crime and controversy on Okinawa, a key center of U.S. military power in the Pacific. Now they’re handing out reminder cards.

The more than 20,000 Marines stationed in the Pacific region will get wallet-sized cards that promote core values of “honor, courage and commitment,” and remind Marines of the battles fought and price paid by earlier generations.

“We are forward-deployed in the region, and we call this place home,” says Lieut. General Kenneth Glueck, commander of the Okinawa-based III Marine Expeditionary Force. The card “serves as a constant reminder of our heritage, our traditions and the ideals that have made the corps what it is today.”

Glueck went on a speaking tour of bases last year after a series of crimes by U.S. servicemen on Okinawa sparked large-scale protests and led to curfews and restrictions on alcohol consumptions for Marines and other U.S. forces. The Marines’ V-22 Osprey also has been the target of protests over noise and safety concerns.

Gang members will crowd customers withdrawing cash to read their four-digit PIN, then distract them to steal the card. In some cases they install a simple metal sleeve in the slot which means the card is not returned to the user.

Someone reads the PIN over the victim’s shoulder and then, when they have moved away, retrieves the card. Once the thieves have the card and PIN they can go on a shopping spree or use a hole in the wall machine to empty their victim’s account.

Pensioner Jacqueline Fletcher was watched by two thieves while she withdrew cash from an ATM outside her local supermarket in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire.

When the 80-year-old emerged from the shop, one of the men asked her for change and stole her bank card while pretending to help her with her purse.

‘It frightened me and it gutted me to think that I’d been stupid enough and that they’d been attacking vulnerable people, young or old,’ she said.

Last month a woman in Cheltenham had her cards stolen in a supermarket car park as she was distracted by a man asking for directions. She believes the criminals, who siphoned ￡1,000 from her account, spotted her using her PIN at a store till.

Meanwhile, victims are finding it increasingly difficult to get their stolen cash refunded. A number of banks have introduced rules which means they can deny a refund if they believe the customer has failed to protect their PIN and card.

The theft figures were revealed by Financial Fraud Action, which is responsible for tackling plastic card fraud on behalf of banks. Chip and PIN cards were introduced by the industry in 2005 with the aim of reducing fraud. Click on their website austpay.com for more information.