Contributed by Marc Denson:

Beginning today Tuesday, August 7^th through Friday August 10th, the City of Corpus Christi will be installing 300 new credit card maters in the most frequented downtown and uptown areas. The project originally slated to be in place January 1 of this year was delayed for product upgrades and a production backlog. Rates on the credit card meters will be 75¢ per hour approved by City Council August 2011, but awaiting on the equipment to arrive.

These 300 credit card meters will still take coins, but also Visa and Mastercard and are self-explanatory. The city will then relocate the existing electronic meters eliminating all but about 100 of the old mechanical meters that are between 35-50 years old. The last 100 mechanical should be phased out later this year.  Manufactures quit making parts for most of these older meters 10 to 20 years ago causing cities to replace them as part inventories dwindled.

The new meters have an added ‘green’ aspect being solar-powered, eliminating the use of up to 1200 batteries per year. While initially running on cellular connections these meters will switch to the cities Wi-Fi network over the next several months producing even more operational savings. These meters also operate on a web-based management system which date stamps and inventories every transaction.

In most cities that have converted to this system 70-80% of all transactions are by credit card after the first 12 months. In Corpus Christi during the 90-day pilot program in early 2011, 38% of the transactions were with credit cards, which implies the same trend here. Another nationwide trait of credit card meters is increased meter revenue and decreased citations, by as much as 36%. These traits are contributed to the fact that most people carry little if any change, risking a citation over a small amount of change while almost everyone today carries credit cards.