Digital parking meters begin operating this month in San José

The Municipality of San José began installing this month 1,500 digital parking meters in the capital that accept debit or credit cards.

Rafael Arias, a municipal official, explained that the digital meters will begin operating by the end of March. He added that officials expect other provinces to adopt the system soon.

Motorists not wanting to use personal bank accounts can pay using their cellphones. The procedure is to create a “parking account” at a local bank, which will assign a Personal Identification Number (PIN) to use exclusively for that purpose.

Drivers must send a text message including the assigned PIN plus the license plate number, and a parking time will start running. Then, drivers send another text message when they’re leaving to stop the debiting from the account.

The Municipality of San José in coming days will issue further details on the meter operation as well as the phone number of a call center for customer service.