Salisbury ready to ditch old parking meters

Parking a car on downtown Salisbury streets will get easier in a few weeks when drivers will be able to pay for parking with their cellphones.

The city recently began installing six stations that will replace 106 parking meters in four parking lots and on two streets, said Mayor Jake Day. The new meters installed during the first phase will go into operation Nov. 17.

Drivers input their license plate number and then pay for parking either at one of the stations or by downloading a mobile app to their phones.

"It’s all about convenience,” Day said.

The first stations are being installed by Parkeon Inc., a French company which has partners in the U.S. 

The company’s mobile app, Whoosh!, is available for iPhone and Android users. It allows drivers to extend their time in local businesses by paying remotely instead of running outside to move their car or add more coins to a meter.

“Users can register online so that they can manage their payments directly from their mobile phones,” according to Parkeon’s website.

The app also warns users when the time on the meter is running out.

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The first stations are going on Market and Church streets and in four city parking lots: Lot 4 near Roadie Joe’s, Lots 11 and 12 next to Market Street Inn and Lot 15 opposite Acorn Market.

The second phase of the installations in Salisbury will be from December to April when parking stations will be placed on East Main Street, which is undergoing a major project that includes the replacement of 100-year-old water and sewer mains, as well as high-speed internet lines and streetscape improvements.

The parking stations will be installed in those blocks once the new sidewalks are installed, Day said. Street paving in the block between Baptist Street and Poplar Hill Avenue is scheduled to take place this week, and the project will move one block to the west after that.

Work on the sidewalks should start soon, starting at the Route 13 intersection and moving block by block toward Division Street, he said.

The final group of parking stations will be on West Main and North Division streets, which also are slated for street improvements at a later date.

Salisbury is following the lead of other cities in the region to add parking stations that use mobile apps.

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Ocean City uses a similar system to the one being installed in Salsbury. Parkmobile is in effect 24 hours a day from April 1 to Oct. 31 in the resort, and allows users to pay with a credit card, although some meters accept cash, according to the town website. 

The city of Wilmington recently added the Parkmobile system on about 1,000 metered spaces in the downtown district.

Rehoboth Beach started using Parkmobile in 2012. Bethany Beach and Lewes started in 2014, and Dewey Beach got it in 2015. 

Day said parking apps are gaining in popularity because many people don’t carry cash with them anymore.

“It just makes it easier on folks,” he said.

Christina Jedra of The News Journal contributed to this report.