Visitors Complain About Cape May’s Electronic Parking Meters

CAPE MAY — The Herald has received calls from visitors to this city that have received parking tickets due to malfunctioning parking meters.
The city installed central station meters that handle a number of parking spaces and accept payment from credit and debit cards. A caller told the Herald she received only 15 minutes of parking time despite a charge for more time being placed on her credit card.
City Manager Bruce MacLeod told the Herald if someone believes they received a ticket inappropriately, they can question the ticket in municipal court and ask for verification of the time they paid for in the parking meter versus the time on their ticket.
MacLeod said the meters are capable of providing a detailed analysis for each parking space.
“We can research that and we have done that in the past at the municipal court’s request when someone has questioned the ticket,” he said.
One driver who received a ticket complained they would not be in Cape May the following Wednesday to attend municipal court to protest the parking ticket. MacLeod said someone who is leaving town, could submit a letter with their ticket and request an investigation of the ticket as compared to the record in the meter.
He said meters do experience mechanical or electronic problems from time to time.
MacLeod said the city has found on many occasions, the meters were not either coin fed properly or that the customer maybe didn’t understand which parking space they were in because drivers have to enter their parking space number in the central station meter.
Drivers sometimes purchase time for the wrong parking space by not entering the correct number of the space where they are parked, he said.
A driver who is experiencing a problem with a meter can call the police department. The Department of Public Works maintains the meters, said MacLeod.
If a meter will not operate at all and a driver has not purchased a lot of time in the meter, he advised moving to another parking space. MacLeod said he realized it may be difficult to find another parking space in Cape May.
He said a driver should not continue to park at a meter if it is inoperable because that is not justification to avoid a ticket.
MacLeod said there is sometimes interference trying to complete credit card transactions since the electronic meters are Internet based. The central station meters operate in part of battery power. The batteries have to be changed on occasion, he said.
This reporter battled a meter on Lyle Lane that would not accept money for parking space number five but insisted on crediting parking space number three.