photo by: Eric Ayres

Parking meters still exist in the city of Wheeling, but they may soon be phased out as new technology will allow the city to monitor parking times and issue tickets to violators.

WHEELING — A new approach to monitoring downtown parking in the city of Wheeling will soon be introduced, with modern technology promising to help enhance commerce at local businesses in a way that antiquated parking meters cannot.

The city is preparing to outfit two newly purchased vehicles and one additional municipal vehicle with cameras, hardware and software that will allow parking enforcement personnel to keep track of parking violations.

Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron explained that the technology — commonly known as Electronic Tire Chalking or Digital Tire Chalking — will not only increase efficiency with enforcement, but will also allow free parking for certain periods of time before overtime violations warrant a ticket.

City officials for years have stressed that parking meters in areas such as the downtown are in place not for revenue but instead to create turnover — keeping parking spaces available for people visiting local businesses.

“The goal now is turnover,” Herron said. “Parking meters are very effective with turnover. Right now we have no meters in most of the downtown, and there are people parking for longer than two hours. We believe this is going to effectively deal with that.”

The West Virginia Division of Highway’s massive Downtown Streetscape Project has been ongoing for many months and is expected to continue well into next year before it is completed. The project has made significant improvements in the downtown area with new street surfaces on Main Street, as well as new sidewalks, curbs, crosswalks, traffic lights and other features.

In the areas affected by the Streetscape work, old parking meters were removed — and they are not expected to be replaced.

Herron noted that, currently, the only way to enforce overtime parking in areas without meters is to physically chalk tires, which is a long, tedious and inefficient process when enforcement personnel are on foot doing it manually.

With the new system, technology does all of this work very quickly.

“There will be cameras mounted on vehicles – we bought two, and we have one now that will be a spare,” Herron said. “There will be parking zones established where the majority of them will be two hours free parking. Some of them will be a little bit shorter depending on the type of business.”

Herron explained that parking enforcement personnel will drive the outfitted vehicle in the designated areas, such as the downtown, and the cameras will read each vehicle’s license plate and the location of at least one valve stem. They will register the location, time and date, and then will provide notifications when two hours have passed.

The technology will detect if a vehicle is parked in a two-hour parking zone or a 15-minute parking zone, Herron explained. The technology zeroes in on a vehicle’s valve stem location, which in essence is similar to chalking a tire to see if it is moved from that same location after time has expired.

“It will alert the parking enforcement personnel in the car when the two-hour time frames are up, or as the parking enforcement personnel drive by, it will alert them as well,” Herron said, noting that the technology in the two active enforcement vehicles allows them to “communicate with each other.”

Earlier this fall, the city approved the purchase of two new 2024 Nissan Leaf electric vehicles at $27,595 each from Straub Nissan of Triadelphia for use in the new timed parking enforcement program. The city manager said they opted for electric vehicles for a number of reasons.

“Primarily for efficiency,” he said. “We’re in an urban environment, and we have charging stations.”

Currently the city has electric vehicle or EV charging stations inside the new Market Street Parking Garage. Thanks to grant funding, there will soon be EV stations installed inside the Intermodal Parking Garage downtown and in Centre Market in Center Wheeling, as well.

The city has received the two new vehicles, and city council has approved the purchase of the new hardware and software, which is expected to be received and installed this winter.

“It will take probably two to three months to get everything loaded into the cars – the software and hardware,” Herron said. “We anticipate receiving the cameras and the software in January. We already have the vehicles. So we will mount that and get training in January and February.”

Implementation of the new program will likely begin sometime around March.

“It is only for areas that have timed parking, but no meters,” Herron said. “So right now, it is the downtown area. We’ve eliminated parking meters because of the Streetscape project. We’re not putting parking meters back in.”

There are some meters still in the downtown where the Streetscape has not taken place, and there are parking meters in other areas of town, as well. The new program is only for non-metered areas, but those areas will likely be expanding if the new program is successful.

“This would not apply to the areas where there are meters at this point, but if it goes as planned, the goal would be to phase out parking meters,” Herron said.

Right now, the Parkmobile app is still available and in use in areas where there are still meters, so motorists can pay for timed parking using their mobile phone.

“There’s going to have to be some ordinance changes on the parking to codify the two-hour free parking, etc.,” Herron said. “There’s going to be an educational process. And it does provide free parking, which is beneficial to the business community, but it also will create turnover – which is also very beneficial.”

Presently, overtime parking fees are $10. The city’s holiday Food for Fines program is in effect this month, and violators can donate canned food items in lieu of paying the fines. Members of city council and the city administration are expected to discuss whether or not parking fees will increase once the new program is implemented, Herron said.

“Parking will be free, but will be timed,” he said. “And it will be strictly enforced. If it’s two hours, it’s two hours.”