The first parking machines to accept credit card and smartphone payments have begun to pop up in carparks in Canberra’s city centre, signalling a shift for thousands of territory commuters.
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The ACT government has begun its rollout of 300 ‘‘pay and display’’ parking machines to replace hundreds of existing coin-only meters.
The first of the new machines have been installed in Civic during the past few days, with more set to appear in Woden, Dickson, Belconnen, Manuka, Kingston and Tuggeranong in coming months.
It will mean commuters can pay for parking using coins, credit cards, or their smart phone with the Parkmobile app.
Smartphone app users could also get a text message alert to remind them when their parking was due to expire.
Executive director of the Office of Regulatory Services Brett Phillips said the machines would also eventually be connected to the MyWay transport system.
‘‘It’s about moving from primarily a coin machine to a machine that offers a wide range of payment options,'' he said.
‘‘It’s about ease of payment.’’
Canberra’s coin meters were described as faulty and outdated in a report issued by Auditor-General Maxine Cooper in June last year.
The report found the city's car parks were losing at least $1 million annually from the meters.
A switch to new machines comes after the ACT government and National Capital Authority last year announced a plan to introduce paid parking on national land in Parkes, Barton, Russell and Acton from July 1.
The plan, designed to alleviate parking strain for visitors to some of the city’s cultural institutions, will create 9000 paid parking spaces in the Parliamentary Triangle and surrounding suburbs.
The territory government has been keen to get its hands on a share of the $47 million in revenue expected to flow from the new machines, so far without success.
Parking management provider Duncan Solutions won a contract to supply and install the new machines in December.
