People using the parking meters on Marshall Street will be expected to pay an additional 50-cent per hour charge on top of the $1.25 fee, starting the first week in March. Credit card payments will also be accepted at the pay stations.

The parking meters around Marshall Street are some of the most widely used in Syracuse’s central business district, said Joshua Kemp, crew leader of the parking meter division of the Borough of Transportation. The parking meters on Marshall Street are used almost as much as with those in Armory Square, he said.

The improved pay stations would meet people’s high demands for credit card capability, said Pete O’Connor, commissioner of the Department of Public Works. Once the credit card readers are installed to the existing pay stations, it will cost $1.25 per hour to park in a metered space. The 50-cent increase will accommodate for the extra expenses from the new credit card option, he said.

Kemp said he expects the changes to help businesses with the new credit card installation. People can now choose the amount of time they can park via the new credit card installation. It will give people more time to explore the different businesses on Marshall Street. The new parking meters will also eliminate the need for people to carry around change, he said.

Rates for parking meters have not changed in Syracuse since 1995, but meter rates have been below the average of other cities of its size, O’Connor said. The changes will affect all of the parking meters in Syracuse, he said.

Amy Hayden, a sophomore broadcast journalism major, said she already keeps change for the meters in her car. She said she doesn’t think the changes will be beneficial to her.

‘I would rather pay 75 cents using change than pay $1.25 using my card,’ she said.

John Michael, the owner of J. Michael Shoes on Marshall Street, said that he had not been aware that meter rates were going to increase, but the new implementations will definitely slow down business.

Michael said he thought there were not enough parking spaces on Marshall Street to begin with. The longer cars stayed parked in the same space, the less likely it was for his potential customers to find a spot, Michael said.

Installation will start downtown next week, until all the parking meters in Syracuse are updated. The goal is to be done with all of the installations by the second week of March, Kemp said.

Marshall Street will be one of the last streets to be affected by the increased parking meter rates, he said. Both the increased rates and the addition of the credit care feature will be applied as an update to existing stations, instead of installing new ones.

shkim11@syr.edu

Published on January 27, 2010 at 12:00 pm