In Ocean City, new parking system to shorten wait time

Ocean City's opening act for the summer season includes a new parking system starting April 1. 

Solar-powered kiosks will take over the old "pay-and-display" method, where visitors used to exhibit a printed receipt, according to a town release.

Town officials are saying "pay-by-plate" parking, in which visitors enter their car's license plate information for authorities to scan, will shorten wait times and help better manage parking occupancy. 

The new kiosks feature a full-color display screen with step-by-step instructions for making transactions. Time can be extended at the kiosk with the license plate number. 

Pay-by-cell parking remains the same. Visitors can still pay for and extend their parking with the Parkmobile app, which sends text reminders on when their parking time is about to expire. 

The Parkmobile app is available for download on the App store for iPhones, the Google Play Store for Android devices, and the Microsoft store for Windows phones.

Ocean City is also implementing a similar “gateless” system at the Inlet parking lot.

The entry and exit gates will be removed and parking kiosks will be placed throughout the lot. License plate readers will be installed at the Inlet entrance, allowing the town to bill drivers for parking if they fail to pay at the kiosks.

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The system will be managed by a single company — New Jersey-based Parkeon — rather than by the four separate contractors that used to oversee the parking meters.

Prior to the "pay-by-plate" method, numerous overseers of Ocean City’s parking systems have caused problems for the town in the past, according to City Engineer Terry McGean.

In 2015, McGean said, the entire parking enforcement system went down, and over the three weeks during which the various contractors argued over responsibility, the town lost about $50,000.

Shortly thereafter, a committee comprised of various officials from town agencies was formed and it recommended having all systems overseen by a single vendor.

“The reason we took this approach was the committee felt having all paid parking systems under a single vendor would help to eliminate the confusion and finger-pointing that resulted in the 2015 enforcement outage,” he said.

According to the release, Ocean City officials expect the new system to significantly reduce wait times at the exit to the lot.

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