Calgary Parking Authority to remove 12% of ParkPlus machines from city streets
CPA says machines were underperforming, contactless payment options available
The Calgary Parking Authority is removing 12 per cent of its ParkPlus machines from city streets.
It says the 73 machines were under-performing, so they're being removed from several areas, including the Beltline, Bridgeland and along 17th Avenue S.W.
Moe Houssaini with the Calgary Parking Authority says the decision wasn't directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused a drop in demand for parking.
He says the removals will cut some costs for the city-owned company, on everything from repairs to coin collection fees.
"Employee hours will not be affected due to the small number of machines that we're removing," said Houssaini.
"It's 12 per cent of our fleet — about 460 of them still remain. It increases our efficiency and it allows us to also focus on some of the sanitization of CPA facilities due to COVID-19 and we can concentrate in that areas as well."
Houssaini says the machines will be removed over the next three or four weeks.
The parking authority offers several contactless ways for people to pay for parking, including through its app, but he says customers who wish to use a ParkPlus machine will still find options nearby.
Approximately 26 per cent of revenue for ParkPlus came through the app in 2019, a number that has increased to nearly 30 per cent this year.
With files from Scott Dippel