Birmingham Moves Forward With Plan to Fully Automate Parking Garages

Birmingham is moving forward on a plan that would eliminate the need for staffed pay booths at two of the city's parking garages.

At its Monday night meeting, the City Commission voted to install two pay-in-lane machines at the Brown Street exit of the and the Bates Street exit of the North Old Woodward Parking Structure. The machines would eliminate the need for the existing pay booths at these exits.

In total, the plan will cost $79,661. However, the city is expected to save $225,000 annually in wages and salaries should the booths — and the four full-time attendants who work there — be eliminated.

The project is part of a three-year initiative to automate payments at all five of the city's parking structures. Three of the structures — , and — are already fully automated while the North Old Woodward and Pierce Street structures were left with parking attendants.

However, because the city is planning to upgrade the security hardware for all the pay-in-lane machines, assistant city engineer Brendan Cousino said this is the perfect opportunity to consider fully automating all of the parking garages.

In a memo sent to city commissioners, Cousino wrote that since three of the parking garages went fully automated 2 1/2 years ago, consumers have become accustomed to paying on their own either at the walk-up machines or pay-in-lane machines, all of which take credit cards while some still take cash.

"From a customer service perspective, neither city staff nor Central Parking staff has heard many complaints regarding the parking structures that are currently automated," he said. "People are becoming more accustomed to (automation) as a part of their daily lives."

Commissioners had the option of approving machines that would dispense dollar bills, as opposed to dollar coins, but at an added cost and there was the potential for more maintenance.

"The perceived convenience of dispensing bills really is outweighed by the maintenance costs," City Manager Bob Bruner said.

According to Central Parking System's general manager Jason O'Dell, 65 percent of those who park in city garages pay with a credit card. However, 75 percent of those who park stay for less than two hours, which is free.

The only objection to the plan was from resident Dorothy Conrad, who noted she doesn't want to see the parking garages go completely unstaffed, particularly during late night hours when movies are letting out or diners are leaving restaurants.

O'Dell said there are usually two to three staff members on duty during peak business hours, and one person on duty from midnight to 6 a.m.