The City of Somerville has partnered with Duncan Solutions to conduct its second pilot of a single-space meter that accept credit cards.

Located for the first time in Magoun and Ball Squares, the new meters will continue providing residents and visitors the added convenience of multiple payment options while parking at a meter in Somerville. A similar pilot was recently conducted in Davis and Union Squares, garnering positive feedback from both drivers and business owners.

“Working with the IPS Group out of San Diego, our single-space meter pilots in Davis and Union Squares have proven very successful and beneficial to both drivers and local businesses,” said Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone. “Though we are extremely happy with the IPS meters that make payments easier by offering credit card options, we are considering a wider-scale purchase based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback, and felt it was important to sample more than one product before taking this next significant step. I hope this pilot program will set the groundwork to overhaul our entire meter fleet, thereby making residents’ and visitor and business owners’ interactions with our parking system easier and more efficient.”

The 30 new meters accept quarters, Visa and MasterCards. Color-coded key panels and large LCD screens are also designed to make transactions easy and intuitive for motorists.  In addition to the payment convenience, the new meters offer solar powered, real-time wireless communications that will lower maintenance needs and increase efficiency.

“The additional pilot program will allow the city to further its experiment with another vendor and better determine the best and most cost-effective product for a potential full scale implementation,” said Matthew Dias, Acting Director of Traffic and Parking. “With the additional forms of payment options, we have already seen positive outcomes: a drop in the number of parking violations and ticketing, customer satisfaction due to the multiple payment options, and no more searching for quarters when looking to park.”

For more information about the city of Somerville’s pilot program, visit www.parksomerville.com. For more information on Liberty Meters, please visit www.DuncanSolutions.com/Liberty.