Debit card usage would be more convenient, cost-efficient than change
South Carolina needs to take a look into revamping the parking meters around the city of Columbia. First and foremost, it’s aggravating that I have to pay to simply park my car in a spot for a certain amount of time. The rate per minutes is ridiculous, and going to a single class can cost upward of $2 or $3. Personally, I pay just about $24 a week in change parking for my 15-credit-hour load.
It’s inconvenient to have to pay in coins. Meter parking should be renovated to include debit card capability. In the age of plastic money, it is rare for the average person to have, at the drop of a hat, the exact change needed to occupy an asphalt square for an hour or two.
Debit card meters are being used quite successfully in other large cities, and people are walking around with a little less jingle in their pockets than here in Columbia.
If Columbia implements the same system as seen in San Diego and other cities, the plastic cards would help out with the hassle of having to make sure a person has change in order to park his or her car. In San Diego, a prepaid, rechargeable “debit” card is used in the place of coin money to put time on the meter.
These cards can hold between $10 and $45 worth of parking time. The residents apply for a card and pick it up at a downtown location. They are then able to park with the simple slide of a card.
If a person wishes to pay the old-fashioned way with coins, they still can. And if by chance there is still time on the meter when the drivers wish to leave, all they have to do is simply swipe the card again, and they will be refunded the money down to six minutes.
All of that sounds much better than what we have here in Columbia. Currently, you have to carry around enough change in your pockets or bag. If you come up short, you risk a $5 to $7 parking ticket. And if you come back from class or your shopping trip early, you are left with no choice other than to leave your remaining time to some lucky driver looking for a spot.
The use of coins to pay at the meter is inefficient and a waste of money. If I could collect all of the leftover change or cancel out the few parking tickets I have managed to get because my time ran out, I would have a good chunk of cash.
Meter debit cards are a smart way to save taxpayers money but a big loss of revenue for the state, which capitalizes on the tickets and rollover time on an expired meter and uses it to pay for road repairs and other things. But in the interest of saving taxpayers some extra change, debit accepting meters should be considered.