The classic film Cool Hand Luke opens with Paul Newman (drunkenly) cutting the heads off of a number of parking meters, which sends him to a prison camp. For years Milwaukee has used a multi-space parking meter system called LUKE, named after this very movie scene. Despite being notoriously slow and having a penchant for breaking, no one has taken a saw to them in real life (yet).
All photos by Joe Powell for The Squeaky Curd.
But the days of remembering a spot number on a city street, walking a half-block to a LUKE meter, hoping it’s connected to the system, paying (assuming the card reader is working), and printing a receipt all to secure 2 hours of on-street parking are soon to be over. The Milwaukee Department of Public Works is already phasing out the clunky LUKEs, which are at their end-of-life.
Instead, Milwaukee will be investing ($3.5 million) in modern technology in a retro package: smart parking meters that look and feel like those Paul Newman had it out for. Over the next few years all meters will be changed over, and there are some major beneficial differences between the LUKE and new meters:
- New meters will be stationed along the streets, serving only 2 parking spots each. No need to remember a parking number and go in search for a LUKE station.
- Payment can be made with coins, card, or from the MKE Park app (with the ability to add time via the app as well).
- Each meter will explicitly tell the user what parking prices/restrictions are in effect at that moment.
- They’re connected to the Internet directly and constantly.
That last bullet is key to the future of parking in Milwaukee: namely, that constant Internet connectivity (besides costing $4/meter/month extra) allows for a more robust feature-set beyond what any meters in the city are currently capable of.
- Speed of transactions are estimated to be between 5-10 seconds, versus up to 2 minutes for the LUKE meters (which resulted in 12 erroneous parking tickets per day).
- City service crews will be able to monitor the status of meters in real-time to fix them promptly.
- The system is capable of changing select meters’ pricing levels at-will.
You heard that last point right, folks: surge pricing for street parking is now possible, and, based on a recent unanimous Public Safety and Health Committee vote, probable in Milwaukee. No one likes paying for public parking spots (even with strong arguments for higher prices), but there’s no doubt these new smart parking meters will make the payment experience a little more bearable. No guarantee there’ll be an open spot, though.