‘New DC Parking Meters’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

DDOT announced today that it’s in the process of installing 1150 new single-space, solar-powered, credit card–accepting parking meters around the city. The solar meters were the first of several pilots DDOT has used to prepare to upgrade the city’s parking infrastructure.

DDOT tells us that you can expect to see most of the new meters downtown, where there aren’t already multispace meters, and in the U St. Corridor. Both are high-demand areas where healthy turnover is desirable.

For someone in the process of getting rid of her car, I’m probably disproportionately excited about this, and about the in-car metering system (like Arlington’s iPark) and pay-by-cell options that will also be rolled out in the next year. But nonetheless, making it easier for people to pay for their parking instead of risking a ticket because they didn’t have 32 quarters on them benefits everyone, including the city, which will realize additional revenue simply by making it easier to collect it.

This really just leaves my last remaining parking gripe- Only being able to pay for 2 hours of parking before 6:30 when those two hours of parking will expire well within the 4-hour parking period. Let’s see if we can get that fixed too, okay?

Tiffany Bridge

Tiffany Baxendell Bridge is an Internet enthusiast and an incurable smartass. When not heckling the neighborhood political scene on Twitter, she can be found goofing off with her ukulele, Bollywood dancing, or obsessing about cult TV. She is That Woman With the Baby In the Bar.

Tiffany lives in Brookland with her husband Tom, son Charlie, and two high-maintenance cats. Read why Tiffany loves DC.