Convenience is the name of the game in present day living, and if we have any modern-day inconveniences, paying for parking is definitely one of them. Good news for Oakvillians is that parking concerns will be a thing of the past for Oakville starting September 9, 2014 as downtown Oakville’s lots gets credit card-friendly machines for coinless parking and the town’s on-street parking gets extended times. The new coinless parking upgrade is said to be just one of the initial changes Oakville is implementing to facilitate more convenience and easier access to the whole town, as Mayor Burton says.
Not only will these new upgrade make parking in Oakville more hassle-free, but they will make visiting, dining and shopping around Oakville a truly enjoyable and leisurely time. Mayor Rob Burton says the changes were implemented after he and the Council asked businesses and residents earlier this year for input on how parking can be improved for Oakville. The valuable insights were put to good use and voila! The coinless Pay and Go system and extra on-street parking time was born!
Pay and Go
The Pay and Go system works by simply entering one’s license plate on the credit card friendly pay-by-plate machine which then credits parking fee electronically. No more fumbling for coins! What the town did is to first replace all current pay and display machines in downtown Oakville’s municipal lots with the more efficient and convenient pay-by-plate machines which allow those availing of parking space to pay via credit card. The change is also implemented in Kerr Village. What is great with this is; this eliminates the need to display one’s parking ticket on the car’s dashboard and to instead just enter the car’s license plate. That action prompts the credit card to be credited electronically. The transaction just takes seconds so you can literally just Pay and Go.
Oakville’s director of Engineering and Construction Dan Cozzi says that the pay-by-plate machines are very convenient and that the town is planning to convert all its on-street machines into pay-by-plate machines. By next spring, it is not only the municipal lots which will have pay-by-plate machines but the streets as well. Cozzi advises people to take a photo of their plate number on their smart phones since knowing one’s phone number is a requirement to use the pay-per-plate machines.
Longer Street Parking Times
Besides the Pay and Go system, another very welcome parking change for Oakville is the now 3 hours on-street parking time which was extended from 2 hours before September 9, 2014. The update may take until the end of the month for it to be reflected on all metered parking spaces and all on-street parking spaces, just in time for the holidays season of the year’s last quarter. With this change, visitors will be able to stay longer and enjoy their time around town more. For those who are just visiting the town and may not have their cards with them, all machines in the lots and streets will accept both credit card and coins for payment of parking fee.
Parking Fee Rates
With the new changes, people may be thinking that parking fee rates may go up. However, they are still at an affordable $2 an hour in the streets of downtown Oakville except on certain areas which has lower fees. Areas like Water Street which still remains at $1 an hour and for those who will be using parking lots, the parking fee is still $1.50 an hour.
Upcoming Changes
As mentioned earlier, these changes are just the start. Come next spring, Oakville will be making more parking changes such as putting up additional and improved signages to make finding parking locations easier. The town will also be introducing quick stop parking spaces all over Oakville with a time limit of 20 minutes for those quick errands everyone of us has. More so, the Municipal Parking Lots and Garages page will feature a detailed map of municipal lots and on-street parking areas together with details on how to use the pay-per-plate machines.
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