On-street parking meters in Moncton will soon be a thing of the past.

The city plans to replace the 465 meters with a technology-based platform.

On Monday, council approved a five-year contract with HotSpot for $1.4 million.

Conrad Landry, the city’s director of community safety, said the user experience will improve.

“Our meters are outdated,” Landry told council. “Residents and visitors are frustrated with the experience. We were getting a lot of complaints.”

No upgrades in several years

A staff report said it has become more challenging for the city to repair malfunctioning and vandalized parking meters as they continue to age.

Moncton’s inventory of parking meters was upgraded to dual-space parking meters between 2014 and 2018, but has not undergone any significant upgrades since.

Landry said once the switchover is completed, you will have three ways to pay for parking: through the HotSpot app, by scanning a QR code or using one of 30 digital paystations they plan to install.

“These paystations would be deployed wherever there’s paid parking, and this would accept everything from cash to tap to credit cards to debit,” he said.

In addition to removing the existing parking meters, the gates at the City Hall and Alma Street parking lots would also be taken down.

Real-time data

Landry said the new system will lower maintenance costs and provide the city with more real-time data, such as occupancy rates and peak usage times.

Users will also be able to take advantage of that real-time data to see where there is available parking at any given time.

An online self-serve application will also be created to eliminate manual permits for monthly, residential and visitor parking.

Landry said bylaw enforcement officers will be able to check for compliance by using handheld scanners and vehicle-mounted cameras to scan licence plates.

The switch will take place over the coming months.