City of Trenton Modernizes Parking System in Partnership with Flowbird
City of Trenton Modernizes Parking System in Partnership with Flowbird
The Capital City Focuses On Customer Convenience
Moorestown, NJ – The City of Trenton, New Jersey has begun the long-awaited upgrade to the city’s aging parking meters, replacing old, broken meters with Flowbird’s Strada multi-space pay stations. As of May 23rd, 22 of 83 pay stations have been installed, providing motorists with additional payment methods and customer ease.
The easy-to-use solar powered Flowbird Strada Pay Stations will be installed on the majority of blocks and in downtown parking lots throughout Trenton. The pay stations feature a 7” full color display screen that walks users step by step through the transaction, accepting coins, bills, credit cards, and debit cards at all pay stations. Users will get a receipt at the end of the transaction and place it on their dashboard for enforcement officers.
The new Flowbird system brings the ability for the pay stations to alert City technicians of any maintenance issues so uptime can be optimized. Flowbird’s robust cloud-based data intelligence platform also provides secure and actionable information to City staff, such as metrics, data visualization, and automated reporting.
“This is something we’ve been trying to do in the Capital City for a long time, and we anticipate that the new parking system will have a very positive impact on downtown Trenton,” said Mayor Reed Gusciora in a press statement on Thursday, “Paying for parking will be very convenient, and the data we collect will let us create better parking policies to make finding a parking space much easier.”
The parking upgrade comes as a resolution to a parking problem years in the making. According to City Council, the city was losing thousands of dollars of revenue per year due to broken meters. Parking enforcement officers were only able to ticket cars at some of the City’s meters, since many were broken or missing.
Downtown business owners report that broken meters allowed employees to park in front of their stores all day for free, taking up spots that should be available for customers. With the new pay stations, City Council believes businesses will now draw more customers because parking enforcement will produce more open spaces.
According to Mayor Gusciora, the city has been taking in just over $100K each year in parking revenue, but with the combination of new meters, kiosks and enforcement, the city will be able to bring in more than a million dollars each year.
So far, 22 pay stations have been installed along East State Street from the front of City Hall to the Trenton train station. The remainder of the 83 Flowbird Strada Pay Stations are planned to be rolled out this summer, starting with higher traffic areas.
Currently, Flowbird supports over 40,000 parking pay stations for 600 customers throughout the U.S. This project allows the company to continue its rapid expansion in the northeast, where major cities such as Boston, New York and Philadelphia utilize Flowbird systems.