New Technology Ready For Parking Structures: Birmingham

BIRMINGHAM, MI — Birmingham is upgrading its parking structure payment system technology. The city will install the new system over the next few months at all downtown parking structures with the idea of making operations more efficient and user friendly.

The new system is already in place at the Chester Street structure, where the city has successfully tested the upgraded traffic control equipment, according to a Birmingham-Bloomfield Eagle report. The system requires drivers to use credit or debit cards, or prepaid cards available at city hall, the newspaper reported.

Birmingham City Manager Joe Valentine is hoping the system will prevent backups from occurring in the parking structures. “As we roll out the new technology with the parking structures, it’s just another example of how we’re leveraging technological improvements in the way we provide our services,” he told the Eagle.

The North Old Woodward structure will be the first to get the new system, which cost the city some $501,000. Valentine said it will be installed later this week, the newspaper reported. Lex Khune, a member of the city’s Advisory Parking Committee, said his group carefully considered the new system before recommending its implementation.

“It was a couple of things,” Khune told the newspaper. “When we redid the Chester structure to create the cut-through street, we didn’t want to put the old stuff back in; it didn’t make sense. So we thought we’d go with the state-of-the-art system that (other cities) are moving toward.”

The upgraded technology, he added, should save a small amount of money by getting rid of paper cards that were used with the old system. Not having to maintain the aging payment machines will also save money, Khune told the Eagle.

“I understand that it might take some getting used to,” he told the newspaper. “It might be confusing for people who aren’t used to having their wallet or purse out when they’re pulling in. That will be tricky, but I hope people will adapt to it quickly.”

Photo by Travis Wise via Flickr Commons