May 27, 2009 4:23 pm US/Central
Parking Meter Boxes Malfunction Across City
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
In yet another
breakdown in the city's automated parking meter system, hundreds of the new boxes broke down Wednesday morning, prompting the city to suspend issuing parking tickets.
CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports that some 200 of the 556 new boxes in which motorists deposit money and then get a receipt to display on their vehicle dash board were not working. All were fixed by 5 p.m.
To report a problem with a meter, call (312) 744-PARK
Some of the boxes displayed a message telling drivers to proceed to the nearest box to pay for their spot. Others simply didn't print receipts.
At one point a "couple of hundred" of the payboxes that take both cash and credit card in the central business district were broken, according to Avis LaVelle, a spokeswoman for Chicago Parking Meters LLC, the company that paid the city $1.15 billion to take over its meter franchise.
"It has not been without a few hiccups but I think for the most part there are improvements and if anything this can demonstrate how quickly the situation can be rectified," LaVelle said.
LaVelle said the boxes have not been spitting out receipts that are supposed to be displayed on the dashboards of vehicles. Some boxes displayed an error message instructing parkers to "please pay at another pay station."
Adam Neubauer was in a rush to park Wednesday morning, but he had reason to look perplexed at the nearby pay box, which told him to pay at another station.
But with no other pay station around, Neubauer was understandably confused.
Neubauer was running late for a meeting. "I'll go in and probably have a ticket and I'll fight it," he figured.
Valerie Kennedy placed a hand written note on her dash to ward off a possible ticket.
"Whoever is in charge of it needs to deal with it somehow or another," she said.
LaVelle said crews have been able to get the meters working again by opening the boxes, and then closing them.
"They haven't figured out what the problem is," LaVelle said.
CBS 2 called the help number listed on the pay station and an operator said as long as we obeyed the posted time limits we could safely park in the zone.
She also gave provided a report number that could be used to track the incident and contest and tickets that might have been issued by the city.
Even so, the city did issue a moratorium on tickets for the day, as 15 crews from the firm Chicago Parking Meters spent much of the morning repairing the stations. It all comes at a time when frustrations over the costs and efficiency of city's transition to the new privately managed meter system are high.
The firm still can't address just what went wrong, which is bad news considering these are the pay boxes that are supposed to replace most of Chicago's meters by the end of the year.
The city's transition to the new parking meter system along with higher fees has been filled with problems,
leading to a revolt among parkers.
CBS 2's Vince Gerasole and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.
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