By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jason Fraley from Hyde Park gets a display ticket from a parking kiosk on Third Street between Vine and Walnut Streets Friday morning. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

In a few years, visitors to downtown Cincinnati may not be able to find a single parking meter - all 1,200 could be replaced with kiosks that take cash, change or credit cards.

But that's only if downtown visitors embrace the new ATM-like machines, which will be placed on selected downtown blocks as part of a city experiment.

Former City Manager John Shirey quietly started the pilot project in 2001 with two pay stations costing $8,000 each on the south side of East Third Street between Walnut and Vine streets. That experiment will soon be expanded to East Court Street, with its diagonal parking spaces.

Here's how the "Pay & Display" system works: Parkers will have to go to the nearest pay station (there will be two on each city block), pay, and wait for the receipt. That time-stamped receipt must then be placed on the dashboard for parking enforcement officers to see.

Parking rates and time limits will stay the same, for now, and the city will keep the "10 minutes free" program.

But city officials estimate they can increase parking revenues in the long term. The solar-powered machines cost less to maintain.

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Most important, the city can turn over spaces more quickly. No longer will you be able to park free on time someone else has bought. When you leave a space, your unused time drives off with you.

But there are benefits for parkers, too.

Monthly passes will soon be available. No more scrounging under the seats for spare change. And for those making more than one downtown stop, time bought on Court Street can also be used on Fourth Street.

Jason Fraley, of Hyde Park, has become a regular user of the Third Street machines. He was skeptical at first but has grown to like them.

But like many on Third Street, he's a downtown regular. Court Street's shops and government services will introduce the machines to new downtown visitors every day.

Some wonder whether people are ready.

Indeed, the city's project has been so low-key that Downtown Cincinnati Inc. - the folks who promote downtown and are responsible for the signs pointing motorists to cheap parking downtown - didn't even know the parking kiosks existed.

"I've actually parked on the south side of Third Street, and I said, 'Wow! Free parking!' " said Anastasia Mileham, DCI's vice president for communications.

"We're always trying to get people to come downtown and eat and shop and see a show, and one of the biggest hurdles is to convince people that parking isn't expensive and hard to find," she said. "This is an interesting idea. We'll just have to figure out the right way to let people know."

Robert J. Schroer, the city's director of parking facilities, said that's why the city is phasing in the pay stations. "Naturally, it's going to take some time," he said. Perhaps as long as seven years.

The city also likes the new system because it reduces curbside clutter. "It takes the furniture off the sidewalk," Schroer said.

Indeed, the solar-powered parking machines have become a fact of urban life in many major cities - among them Toronto, Miami, Denver and urban-planning mecca Portland, Ore.

Not every experience was positive.

In St. Petersburg, Fla., the city spent $1.5 million on French-made solar-powered "pay stations." Visitors found them confusing and annoying, and the City Council voted to rip them out three years later. They're now sitting in a warehouse. Those machines required motorists to punch in space numbers and event codes before getting a receipt.

And then there's the walking.

"The biggest criticism in Portland has been that you have to walk half a block in the rain, get a receipt, and go back to your car," said Kevin Montgomery-Smith, vice president of public space management for the Portland Business Alliance.

Those complaints have quieted over the last year, he said. Portland helped people get used to the new system by posting downtown "ambassadors" next to the machines and by being lax in enforcement for a few weeks.

"We were supportive of it purely for the maintenance aspect. They're much more cost-effective for the city, which means the city can use that money elsewhere," Montgomery-Smith said. "They really do pay for themselves in the long run."

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E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com