by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
The design elements of the Laura Street improvement project lean toward the “historic” but the way they work is more toward the 21st century.
The first of 50 state-of-the-art parking meters have been installed on the south end of the street between Bay Street and the Landing.
They have solar panels that recharge the internal battery, which powers an LCD readout and a wireless Internet connection that transmits the payments made with Visa or Mastercard.
The payments for an entire day are recorded at Bank of America and then a single transaction is processed and transferred to the account of the Tax Collector, said Bob Carle, chief of the City’s Parking Facilities and Enforcement Division.
The meters were tested last year in a pilot program. Several were installed at parking spaces under the Skyway tracks to make sure there was enough ambient light Downtown, even in the shade, to maintain the battery’s charge.
Carle said each meter costs $650, which is $300 more than a traditional meter that takes only quarters.
The decision to install $32,500 worth of parking meters in four blocks was “purely for the convenience of people who come Downtown,” said Carle.
“There’s a price for progress,” he said.
Another issue unfamiliar to some pedestrians at Downtown’s intersections is how long it takes for a traffic light to change and whether there’s enough time to cross the street before traffic starts moving.
The new pedestrian signals solve that dilemma with a countdown timer next to the international “wait” and “walk” indicators.
“These are things we aspire to have on every street Downtown. We’re spending money to showcase what could be,” said Paul Crawford, deputy executive director of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and the Laura Street project manager.
Even the new trash cans are more than run-of-the-mill refuse receptacles. Inside them are connections for water and electricity, which vendors will use for their festival booths.
That means no more extension cords and water hoses running from one side of the street to the other during the Jacksonville Jazz Festival.
Crawford said the lighting for the new landscaping and the buildings along Laura Street and the information kiosks are scheduled to be installed this month.
356-2466