ST. PETERSBURG - Parking meters return to downtown's Central Avenue this weekend, but drivers don't need to plink in quarters until Oct. 1.
More than 200 parking meters of Canadian, not French, manufacture are being installed on Central Avenue from First to Sixth streets N.
The two-hour meters are electronic but look like conventional ones and will located beside the parking space, not a good walk away. Those in front of the Municipal Services Center will be for a half-hour only.
Parking meters have had a bad reputation in St. Petersburg ever since the short sojourn of the French Schlumberger pay stations that were installed in 1998. They were ripped out soon after when users complained that they were temperamental and difficult.
Cost will now be 25 cents per half-hour, said Philip L. Oropesa, the city's parking manager. The price was set to discourage all-day parking in one spot. Oropesa said users will pay more staying at a meter all day than using parking lots or garages.
"You want turnover, not people feeding meters," he said.
As little as six minutes can be purchased for a nickel. The machines also take dimes and quarters.
In June, the St. Petersburg City Council approved installing the 217 meters. Although parking meters have been controversial downtown, they have remained in use in other parts of the city.
Two meters will be on each pole in the new setup. Users will not have to turn knobs; they just drop coins in a slot. After the first of the year, meters will accept cards with money amounts programmed in them. Oropesa said these cards are useful to frequent visitors, such as couriers stopping at businesses for only a few minutes. The card eliminates the need for change.
