Jef Nickerson
Mayor Angel Taveras; Leo Perrotta, City Parking Administrator; Frank LaTorre, DID Director of Public Space; and business owner Lisa Newman Paratore this morning announced a new Downcity parking initiative, Park Downtown Providence.
CITY OF PROVIDENCE & DOWNTOWN IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT LAUNCH NEW PARKING INITIATIVE
Park Downtown Providence: a customer oriented initiative to promote convenient and affordable parking.
Park Downtown Providence is a customer-oriented initiative that promotes convenient and affordable parking in the downtown district. To assist drivers with finding parking alternatives, the city has made recent improvements such as the installation of signs directing drivers to parking lots, the replacement of on-street meters, and the identification of additional low-cost on-street parking spaces. For the past few years pre-paid ProvPass cards have been accepted in parking meters in addition to coins. Soon, they will be replaced by new IPS meters that accept credit cards.
Last month, the DID launched a related website, ParkDowntownProvidence.com, to help communicate about parking rates and locations. The site has an interactive parking map that allows people to select destinations and find parking nearby, or choose important criteria such as ‘credit cards’ or ‘monthly parking.’ It also highlights parking specials.
Frank LaTorre, DID Director of Public Space has said, “Using the new website, we want to inform the public that downtown has plenty of reasonably priced parking options that are easy to find and offer top-notch customer service.” As part of this initiative, the DID is also working closely with operators of private parking lots and garages to make sure that signage, pricing and lighting are up to par.
Mayor Angel Taveras has said, “Providence is a vibrant city with incredible restaurants, cultural venues, and specialty shops. Parking should not be an inconvenience for residents or visitors when exploring all that downtown has to offer. By sharing information about parking alternatives with potential customers, we hope that downtown businesses will ultimately benefit.”
City Parking Administrator Leo Perrotta adds that “the DID has been a remarkable partner, helping the city communicate about recent and upcoming parking improvements in the downtown area.”
Greater City Providence
I guess these ride on the cities MESH network for doing credit card authorizations.
I won’t say how I know but I’d never run my credit card through one of these.
I still think these ProvPass Cards should also be a RIPTA Card, which should be reloadable. Get all the city parking facilities to use them.
The webpage is a start, but it really only works for pre-planning, it’s not easy to use when are looking at it from your phone, maybe make it a mobile page or build an app showing where you are.