The Oklahoma Eagle Newswire
The City of Tulsa will begin the installation of 21 parking pay stations and signage in the Brady Arts District this afternoon (Monday, April 17).
The City expects installation will take a few weeks and new pay stations will be covered until the operational launch date of May 15. On May 15, all pay stations will be active and can be utilized by patrons. Staff will also be on site the week of the launch to help users with the new pay stations, if needed.
In 2015, the City of Tulsa launched a pilot parking meter program in the Brady Arts District in search of a pay station that worked best for Tulsa. Three different parking vendors were permitted to install seven parking pay stations. At the end of the pilot period in 2016, the City of Tulsa selected the Parkeon StradaPal pay station as the new parking meter (pictures attached).
“Parking meters allow turnover for businesses and create a neighborhood amenity for the area,” Steve Ganzkow, President of the Brady Owners Association said. “We believe metered parking will prove beneficial to the many visitors, tenants and business owners in the district and I would like to commend the City of Tulsa for their willingness to work with our leadership during this important transition.”
The new parking pay stations will be setup as “pay by plate”, which means the user will enter their car license plate number into a parking pay station. The user will also enter a zone number, which identifies the area in which they parked. The zone numbers will be listed along the street and near parking pay stations. The pay stations will be solar powered, self-sustaining and include on-screen instructions for users.
The payment methods for the new parking pay stations include payment by credit card or coins. Later this year, the City will incorporate a convenient phone number and mobile application for users to pay for parking by credit card without manually entering information at a pay station. Once launched, the mobile application will be available for users outside of the Brady Arts District as well.
Although funding is not available to replace the entire parking meter system at once, the City will start with the Brady Arts District and as funding becomes available, the older multi-space meters throughout Tulsa’s parking meter system will be replaced in phases. Staff will continue maintenance on older meters as needed to maintain the systems’ integrity.
Over time, the goal is to have all of the antiquated parking meters updated to one centralized meter and management system. Eventually, the City hopes to have a mixture of single space meters and electronic Parking Pay Stations that work together on one platform with all types of parking in Tulsa.
By ordinance, metered parking throughout downtown, including the Brady Arts District and the Hillcrest Hospital District, can be enforced Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with the exception of holidays. Citations for parking range from $25 for an expired meter/pay station – $500 for handicap violations.
