Title
Parking Meter Program Update
Description
This report provides the Transportation, Infrastructure and Innovation Subcommittee with an update on the Parking Meter Program, including a summary of costs, revenues, community outreach, and other changes.
THIS ITEM IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY.
Report
Summary
The City's Parking Meter Program provides an important source of revenue to the City, but also provides a benefit to the downtown businesses, restaurants, and events by managing access and use of on-street parking in the downtown and midtown areas of Phoenix. The Street Transportation Department (Streets) manages the program and continuously works to improve the parking meter system to meet the needs of the public.
Since January 2013, Streets has replaced approximately 1,700 coin-only single-space parking meters with credit-card "smart" meters. This provides customers with more convenient payment options, including the use of either debit or credit cards to extend time on the parking meter.
Streets currently operates a mix of 1,690 "smart" parking meters and 540 older coin-only parking meters for a total of 2,230 parking meters. The coin-only parking meters operate in areas of low parking demand. The "smart" meters were purchased and installed through a contract with IPS Group, Inc (IPS) in 2013 and have a ten-year life. IPS is required to provide wireless communications and monitoring services for the "smart" meters under this contract. The current contract with IPS is set to expire on Jan. 27, 2021.
In December 2017, Streets changed its pay-by-phone vendor to ParkMobile, LLC (ParkMobile). ParkMobile provides an app that allows customers to process pay-by-phone services for parking. The pay-by-phone revenues showed an immediate increase over the previous vendor. Current revenue collected through the ParkMobile app averages $40,000 per month. The current contract with ParkMobile expires Nov. 30, 2020, with two one-year extensions still available.
In fiscal year (FY) 2018-19, the Parking Meter Program's operating budget was $1,091,296, and the program generated over $3.8 million in revenue. This represented a 2.7 percent increase in revenue over the previous fiscal year. The Parking Meter Program's current operating budget for FY 2019-20 is $1,238,952, and the program has generated $2.7 million in revenue through the end of April 2020.
Since mid-March, the COVID-19 pandemic has lessened the demand for downtown parking and has significantly impacted program revenue. For example, in April 2020, parking meters generated $49,000 in revenue, where a typical month averages $300,000. It is anticipated that the parking meter revenue will continue to trend lower than expected through the end of the fiscal year. Streets staff estimate total revenue for FY 2019-20 will be approximately $2.8 million, which would represent a 26 percent decrease in program revenues from FY 2018-19.
Streets will continue to evaluate expansion of the Parking Meter Program at the request of and in coordination with local businesses and neighborhood residents. As the downtown Arizona State University campus expands, Street staff anticipates increased requests for additional parking meter installations.
Location
Council Districts: 4, 7, and 8
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Manager Mario Paniagua and the Street Transportation Department.