The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) will soon begin replacing the current on-street parking pay stations that were installed between 2004 and 2010. The first new pay stations will be installed in Pioneer Square, then throughout other sections of the city. SDOT will replace all its parking pay stations in 2015-2016 with new technology. The older technology in the current pay stations is slower to process transactions, provides less reliable cellular communication and includes old credit card readers no longer supported by the vendor. Technology is changing rapidly. Even the newest of the existing pay stations will no longer communicate when the AT&T 2G network is decommissioned. New requirements such as chip credit card readers would require major overhauls.
New technology will provide a higher level of customer service and communications reliability. Credit card transaction times will decrease. New credit card readers allow the user to maintain control of their card, so they will no longer get stuck in pay stations. New back-office software will improve our ability to detect problems remotely and fix them faster. Changes to rates can be made wirelessly from the office instead of downloaded manually at each machine. The new pay stations will allow for “time of day” pricing, to allow for lower parking rates in the morning or other times of less demand.
For additional information, please see the Fact Sheet here
Questions? Please e-mail DOT_paystations@seattle.gov