EDMONTON – Drivers will soon no longer need coins at parking meters in Edmonton.
On Wednesday, city council approved a plan to implement electronic parking meters across the city.
The city conducted a pay-by-plate pilot project over the past year, which received overwhelming approval in customer surveys.
The electronic meter allows a person to pay by coin, credit card or by a smartphone app, which sends a text message to the user to add more time.
There are 3,300 coin-operated parking meters in Edmonton, which will be replaced by 400 pay-by-plate machines.
The cost of the new machines will be $12-million, but the city says the new system will pay for itself.
“Once the equipment is paid off and the loan is paid off, then we move forward and that goes as another revenue source which can offset tax levy,” Gord Cebryk, Branch Manger, Transportation Operations.
Pay-by-plate is already in use in Calgary, and ‘pay-by-phone’ has been around for years in Vancouver.
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