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In the coming months, the Norwalk Parking Authority will be transitioning the technology used in its paystations to license plate recognition technology. When paying for parking at the paystations, parkers will put in their license plate number rather than the parking space number.
The first parking lot to change will be the outside parking lot on the eastbound side of the South Norwalk Railroad Station, which will begin on Friday, Jan. 15.
Thereafter, the license plate technology will roll out one lot at a time in the following order:
- Haviland Deck
- North Water Lot
- Yankee Doodle Garage
- Webster Lot.
It will not affect the South Norwalk Railroad Station or Maritime Garages.
The Parking Authority will have customer service representatives stationed at each facility for a few weeks during the transition to provide assistance and training to customers.
There are a number of benefits for parkers to upgrading to the pay-by-plate paystations. The stations will have easy-to-read instructions and be ADA compliant.
In winter, parkers will have no worries about not being able to see the parking space number when it is covered with snow. Customers will also have flexibility to come in and out of a facility or change spaces within the facility once they pay.
“This may be a bit of a paradigm shift for some people from what they have become accustomed to,” says Norwalk Parking Authority Chairman Julius Hayward. “However, it is the wave of the future. Our pay-by-cell phone technology already identifies cars by license plate numbers, and many other municipalities around the country have instituted this change. We are aware that it will take getting used to, so we’ll have plenty of signs and customer service people out in the lots to assist people.”
For more information, The Norwalk Parking Authority can be reached at 203-831-9063 or at: www.norwalkpark.org.
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