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Digital parking makes second visit to Tampa

"I Park Personal Parking Card" debuts in Tampa about a decade after the city's rendezvous with the Parkulator.

By KEVIN GRAHAM
Published January 9, 2006

TAMPA - Paying to park at downtown Tampa meters has once again gone digital.

City managers began selling the new "I Park Personal Parking Card" devices in November.

The digital devices, about the size of a credit card, only thicker, hang from the rearview mirror and deduct money from a prepaid account.

It's a device similar to the one the city used in the early 1990s, called the Parkulator, said Jim Corbett, Tampa's parking manager. That one went away, he said, because its manufacturer in Israel discontinued making them.

The city chose I Park after a 60-day pilot program comparing it to a competitor. The I Park device costs $20, plus a $5 charge each time a driver adds more money to it. The competitor's product would have cost $65 for the unit and $20 to reload it with money.

The I Park proved to be durable, "and we got the greatest satisfaction from the people that were using it," Corbett said.

So far, the city has sold about 200 of the devices. The most popular purchasers have been delivery companies and attorneys, like David Mechanik. He's a partner at a downtown law firm and chairman of the Tampa Downtown Partnership's transportation committee.

"I was always getting tickets," Mechanik said. "This way, you're protected. The flip side is, if your meeting takes less time than you think it would, you're not overfilling the meter."

The I Park devices are programmed to work at meters in downtown Tampa, where parking rates are $1.50 per hour, and at Ybor City meters, where rates are 75 cents per hour.

To designate the proper amount of deduction, the driver pushes a button until a "D" appears on the device for downtown meters or a "Y" for Ybor City parking.

"It was rather difficult to park more than an hour at a meter," said Tampa Downtown Partnership President Christine Burdick. "Even the most organized person isn't likely to be walking around with more than eight quarters in their pocket."

Corbett said that Tampa is one of I Park's pilot cities, and as its manufacturer improves its technology, the city will be able to offer more services, such as being able to reload the device by using a credit or debit card online.

Corbett has no timeline set for when that will take place.

For now, anyone wanting to purchase the I Park device has to go to the city's parking office at the Fort Brook Parking Garage, 107 N Franklin St.

Reloading the devices also requires a visit to the parking office. The city will add increments of $50 or $100 to the device at a time, plus the $5 fee to add more meter credits to it.

The device can be loaded with more money 99 times, Corbett said, then drivers will have to purchase a new one.

--Kevin Graham can be reached at 813 226-3433 or kgraham@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 9, 2006, 00:56:11]